The Other Universe
by PlutonBlack
Summary: Steven and Connie are saved by a superhero from another world, and Steven being the person he is, easily befriends Ben Tennyson. But the Crystal Gems are having their own problems, with monsters appearing out of the woodwork, only to vanish into thin air. They aren't too sure they can trust Ben either, or his idea of what a hero really is.
1. Portal Ettiquette

Portal Etiquette

When a small town becomes known for constant monster attacks one of two things could happen. It will either blow up in popularity amongst tourists, or will become infamous for hoaxes. Beach City seems to suffer from the latter. Despite the name, the town is rather small, to the point where most of its citizens know each other by first and last name. It's rather isolated in terms of geography and doesn't get many visitors, which is rather sad considering the tranquil and laidback atmosphere of the place. White sandy beaches, luscious flora, streets full of family businesses. Not to mention the bizarre, and practically alien architecture that dots the coast, right up to the giant arm shaped rock with a washer and dryer sitting on it.

And the actual aliens.

Or more specifically, the Crystal Gems. Three alien warriors who protect Beach City from extraterrestrial threats. Nobody knows much about them, they aren't the most social group. But every once in a while you'll see them around town, doing whatever like any other citizen. And more often than not, you'll see their young and friendly companion Steven Universe.

"Um, let's see." Steven looked back and forth through the window of a clothing store. "Which one would look better?" Steven was a short, hammy kid with curly black hair. You could usually pick him out of a crowd by his signature red shirt with a star in the middle. "Puma shirt, or panther shirt? What do you think Connie?"

Next to Steven was his friend Connie, a young girl with brown skin and long brown hair, and wearing a light blue sundress. "Aren't panthers and pumas the same thing?" She asked, unsure about the dilemma.

"What? Since when? No I'm sure they're different." Steven shook his head. "Plus that doesn't help me pick. One has the puma jumping out of the shirt, see?"

"Well yeah."

"And the other one has a panther looking all cool, like 'Yeah I could jump at you, but I don't feel like it.' See?" Steven said, crossing his arms into a cool guy pose

Connie laughed. "You got all of that from looking at a shirt?"

"Of course. When you pick out clothes, you have to know what it says about you." Steven lifted his finger as if giving a lecture. "Pearl say that clothes decide how people see us, and that we should dress according to how we want people to react."

Connie put a finger to her chin. "That sounds about right. Pearl is pretty smart. That sounds like something my mom would say."

"Yep. So~," Steven turned back to the window. "Puma shirt or panther shirt."

"Hm. Now it's even harder to pick." Connie said frowning. "What if you-"

 _ **KA-BOOM**_

The two preteens jumped in surprise, as the explosive noise echoed through the streets. Looking around frantically, they saw a trail of smoke rising from the center of the road about a hundred yards away. For a moment, car alarms were the only sounds that could be heard over the entire city block, as everyone had stopped mid task to make sure there was no danger.

"Was that…a meteor?" Connie asked, her heart still pounding from the sudden explosion. "Or another Gem thing?"

Steven shook his head. "I don't know. Let's go see." He said pulling her along by the arm. To most people, this would seem a bit foolish. Why walk towards a crash? It could be dangerous, and it would make more sense to call the authorities. But Steven was more adjusted to this kind of thing than he probably should have been. As they reached the crater, Steven noticed something strange about the object inside.

"I don't think this is a Gem thing." He said waving some of the smoke out of his eyes. Below them was some sort of machine. While it was dented, burned, and broken in some places, he could tell it was roughly humanoid in shape. It had traces of black and silver mixed with its color scheme, and had an oddly shaped head that reminded Steven of samurai armor. It seemed to be, for lack of better words, a big armored robot.

"Whoa! Look up there!" Connie said pointing at the sky above the crash. Steven's head jerked to the direction she was pointing, and his eyes widened at what seemed to be a pinwheel shaped portal. Now, Steven had seen portals before, plenty of times. He'd even helped in opening a few. But they didn't usually appear out of reach and drop robots out like acorns. But before he could say anything the portal began to glow brighter and spin faster, making the air around them blow a bit harder.

"Connie, we should step back." Steven said grabbing her hand. But just as he was about to turn and run.

 _ **SHOOMP SHOOMP**_

Two figures leapt from the portal and crashed onto the street not fifty feet behind them. Steven and Connie turned to face them, and the shock continued. "They're just like the first one." Steven said. Then his eyes lit up like stars. "Whoa. They _are_ like robot samurai!"

"Yeah…I guess I can see it" Connie said scratching her head. While she did tend to be more cautious than Steven, she wasn't quite sure what they were looking at either. "But _what_ are they?" She asked looking to him for answers.

"I don't know." The robots began looking around as if they were confused. "Like I said, I don't think they're Gem related."

"What makes you say that?" The robots not began to pace around, looking through windows and down allied. "What else could they be?"

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like them before." Steven pounded his fist into his hand. "I know, let's just ask them."

"Wait Steven-"

"Hey!" He waved wildly. "Hey robot guys! Welcome to Beach City."

The two Machines stopped suddenly, and turned directly at the two pre-teens. They stood completely still, and their lack of eyes or any real facial features sent a chill down Connie's spine. "Steven we shouldn't."

"I'm Steven!" He yelled. "Steven Universe, and this is my friend Connie! Your friend is over here, I think he needs repairs or something!" Steven continued to smile all the while, until the two strangers pointed their arms at him.

" **Target located!"** Their hands morphed into cannons. **"Beginning elimination process!"**

"Uh oh." Steven said, as his face dropped into a frightened frown. "Bad idea." Immediately the two robots unloaded a barrage of laser fire directly at him. Steven held out his hands, causing his body to glow pink, and was able to summon a pink energy bubble around both him and Connie just as the attack was about to hit. "Oh man, they didn't even say who they were."

"Well they are robots," Connie said, watching the creatures walk closer without letting up on their laser fire. "Maybe they don't have names. What should we do now?"

Steven's face hardened. "We gotta fight them somehow. They could seriously hurt somebody." He put a hand to his chin. "I really wish the Gems were here right now."

 _ **SHOOMP!**_

Just then another figure jumped out of the portal and crashed onto the pavement. This one, however, was different. He was just as tall as the robots, about 12 feet, but had a turquoise-green crystal body, with a head that ended in a point, and massive arms. He wore some kind of black body suit, with green highlights. As he turned, the robots ceased their fire and turned to look at him.

"Thought I forgot about you huh?" He said in a deep, but more human sounding voice. "Sorry to say, but you two are the last ones. You ready to finish this?" The crystal creature pounded his fist into his hand.

" **Mission interrupted. Designating priorities. Destroy Ben Tennyson."**

"Good luck with that." Ben mocked as he sized up his last two Techadons for the day. "Low quality tech like yours is no match for Diamondhead." He said, turning his right arm into a mass of crystal shards. "See-yah." Diamondhead fired of crystals like a machine gun, embedding them into the chest of the closest robot.

Although it wasn't out yet. It reeled back its fist and charged at Diamondhead, in a sad attempted to break through his super durable body. He merely stuck out his left arm and grew it into a broad shield, letting the robot smash its own hand to pieces, before upper cutting it straight into the air. It fell with a loud crash behind its counterpart, which grew missile launchers from its arms and shoulders. Just as it was preparing to-

"Nope." Diamondhead flung a handful of sharpened projectiles at the robot, hitting the weapons of its left arm dead on causing a chunk of its left half to explode, and launching it backwards though a brick wall. Diamondhead winced. "Yep. There's the collateral." Just then he felt a blast of energy hit him of the side of the head. The other techadon had shot him from the ground. "And then there's this guy." He muttered.

He pressed his fingers together and molded his hand into a sharp blade. "Gotta finish these things before they regenerate." He ran up to the fallen android, even as it was firing and leapt up over its body before crashing down blade first into its chest. The android twitched and sputtered before dozens of crystal spikes jutted from its body, riddling it with holes. Diamondhead then ripped his hand out, now back to normal, and stood to face the other machine as it limped out of the wrecked building.

The techadon slowly raised its right hand to fire what was left of its missiles, **"Target must be eliminated!"** _*tink*_ The techadon looked down to see a small diamond shard embedded in its missile launched. **"DANGER!"** It yelled just before its right side exploded, and launched it through the brick wall on the other side of the street.

"Hm." Diamondhead dusted his hands together. "That takes care of that. And only two wrecked buildings. That's a new record."

"Who is _that_!?" Steven and Connie asked at the same time. Connie turned and gave Steven a quizzical look. "You don't know?" She asked. "Isn't that guy a Gem?"

"I don't know but he's awesome." Steven dispersed the bubble he'd created and began running toward the crystal man. "Hey. How'd you do that stuff?" This caused the strange creature to turn and look at Steven and, unlike the robots, he waved.

"Yo. You guys alright over there?" He asked, and started to walk towards them. Connie wasn't quite sure what to think. On the one hand, she had no idea if this guy was an enemy or not, not that she could do much about it without her sword. On the other hand, he did save them, and he was made of stone. Maybe he was from the Gem Home World? As she was thinking this, she almost failed to notice the rustling sound coming from the crater. "Hey kid, behind you!" Just as she turned her head, the cannon was already being pointed.

" **T-t-target loc-c-c-cated."** The robot stuttered as the cannon charged. Something seemed to be wrong however, as the androids body was sparking and quivering. The arm that held the cannon glowed red, as if overheating. **"D-d-d—destruction eminent. Initiating self-destruct."** No sooner had it said this did its whole body glow red with heat.

"STEVEN!" She screamed, subconsciously crossing her arms in front of her body, just before the explosion tore apart the street.

It took Steven a moment to register what just happened, and when he finally did he felt his breath get caught in his throat. He'd instinctively summoned his bubble again, so he knew he was fine. But looking back where he came from all he could see was dust and smoke. "C-Connie?" He pressed his hands against the wall of the bubble, popping it. "Connie!" He ran towards the wall of smoke, everything he'd been doing completely forgotten. He didn't even hear the stomping of stone feet pacing behind him as he waved his arms to push away the black clouds. Steven didn't really think about what he'd find in the smoke, but as soon as he felt a great shadow pass over him his attention shifted. The crystal man from before was standing next to him, looking around as well. While he'd been excited before, now he wasn't sure what to think.

"Whew." Muttered Diamondhead. "Thought I might not have made it for a second." He said holding out his hand to a small pyramid of crystals that Steven hadn't noticed before. As he did, the walls of the pyramid began to recede into the ground, slowly reveling the small girl curled up inside with her hands over her head.

"Connie!" Steven beamed. "You're okay!" Connie's head shot up as she looked around, as if surprised by this.

"I am?" She looked down at herself.

"Looks like it." Diamondhead said, drawing their attention back to himself. "Sorry about the explosion. I didn't even notice that last one was still active." His hand went to the back of his head. "That was my bad. I'm trying to work on that."

"Oh it's no trouble." Connie said as politely as she could. "It's the robot's fault, you saved me." She stood up and bowed. "Thanks for that."

"Yeah." Steven said standing next to Connie. "Thank you for saving my friend."

Whatever Diamondhead had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. His eyes widened a little bit at how relaxed they seemed to be after being so close to death, but then he remembered something.

"Well it's all in a day's work for a superhero." He smirked while crossing his arms. "I'm just glad you guys are all right. Quick question though. How did you-"

"You're a super hero!?" Steven shouted with stars in his eye, bouncing up and down. "For real? Like a real one?" Next to Steven Connie was smiling a bit harder too, but she was able to contain herself a bit better.

"Well yeah I'm-"

"Are you an alien? A Mutant? A Cyborg?"

"Alien. But more impor-"

"What planet are you from? Is it Mars? Are you the last of your kind?"

"Well I'm from another dimension but-"

"Are you really made of stone or is that a special space suit?"

"It's crystal actually and-"

"Like a Crystal Gem? Are you a Crystal Gem?" Suddenly Steven drew back and gasped. "Are you from Home World!?"

"Slow down!" Diamondhead raised his hands. "I'm a C student I can't answer questions that fast." He sighed. "Let's just start from the beginning and introduce ourselves."

"Great idea." Steven pumped his fist. "My name is Steven Universe." He pointed his thumb at himself. "And this is my friend Connie Maheswaran." Directing both hands at Connie as she waved. "Hi."

"You're last name is Universe? Like for real?" Diamondhead asked, scratching his chin.

"Yep."

"Cool. Nice to meet you both. My name is Ben." He held out his hand. "Ben Tennyson."

"Nice to meet you Ben." Steven said, not even hesitating to shake the giant hand.

"You're last name is Tennyson?" Connie asked. "Like Lord Alfred Tennyson?"

Both Ben and Steven paused and stared at Connie. "Um, I have no idea who that is but, yeah that's my name."

"How does an alien end up with a human name?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Well I wasn't born an alien. I just turn into them a lot. Like I call this one Diamondhead." He said before hitting a symbol on his belt. There was a flash of green light, bright enough where Steven and Connie had to squint. As it died down, the giant that had been standing there was replaced by a brown haired teenaged boy, with green eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with green stripes, like Diamondhead's suit, and brown pants. He also had a high-tech looking white watch on his left wrist. "This," He said gesturing to himself. "is what I actually look like."

"Whoa." Was all they could say.

 _ **Meanwhile, far up the coast.**_

" _RAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"_ A massive, white, serpentine beast tore its way through a wall of trees, snapping and biting at a tall red skinned woman with a cube shaped afro. The snake beast shot its arrow shaped head forward like a spring loaded rocket, trying to pierce the woman.

Undaunted, she summoned a pair of thick red gauntlets and pulled back her fist to strike the creature when it suddenly made a sharp 90 degree turn and shot back into the trees. Just before it pierced through a patch of bushes a short purple woman with long lavender hair leapt into the air and flipped onto its back.

"Check it out guys! I caught me a big'n." She shouted before pulling a large whip from the center of her chest and whipping it around the beast's neck. "Ha! Fishing joke."

"It's clearly not a fish Amethyst." Said another, more stern sounding voice. The serpent once again made a sharp turn in the direction of the voice, when a spear bounced off of its edged snout.

"Uh yeah, I know, it's just a joke." Amethyst said as she kicked off the side of the creature and yanked on her whip, pulling it head straight towards her. Before it hit, her entire arm grew about ten times its normal size and she let lose a punch that launched it several meters away. "Kind of like your last attack Pearl."

"Oh very funny." Pearl said jumping from her hiding spot in the trees, summoning another spear from the gem on her forehead. Pearl was a slim, pale skinned woman with peach colored hair.

"I know. That was _also_ a joke." Amethyst stomped her foot. "Not that _you_ would know."

"If this conversation has proven anything is that I know exactly when-"

"FOCUS!" A third voice cried out. Pear and Amethyst turned to see the red skinned woman from before launching her gauntlets like rockets straight between them and right into the face of the serpent, launching it back before it could strike at them. "This one is fast, don't take your eyes off it for a second."

"Got it!" Amethyst said dissolving her whip and holding out her fists.

"Sorry Garnet." Pearl said twirling her spear and dropping into a fighting stance.

Garnet summoned her gauntlets back and held them up like a boxer.

The creature stood itself up, wound up like an odd rectangular snake. Its arrow shaped head gleamed like a sword in the sunlight that shone through the trees. On its fore head was a round, cracked, red gem.

Just as the Crystal Gems charged in to strike, and right before they could land a hit, the creature vanished in a shimmer of red light, causing the three warriors to smash the ground where it once stood.

"Um," Amethyst looked around. "What just happened?"

"It just disappeared." Pear said. "Was that speed? Or some kind of teleportation?"

"It's gone." Garnet said, her expression was unreadable behind her thick reflective glasses. "I can't sense it anywhere."

Amethyst raised her hand. "Can't you just find it with your-"

"It's _gone_." She said once again, dismissing her gauntlets and walking away. "We'll deal with it later."

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "Is that really the best-"

"Later." Garnet was already meters away and didn't even bother to look back.

Pearl and Amethyst gave each other worried looks. "Do you think that-"

"Something's up with Garnet?" Amethyst finished. They both looked at the tall woman in the distance. "Probably. You gonna ask?"

"Of course not. She'll tell us when she's ready."

"You mean you're gonna tell Steven and wait for him to ask?" Amethyst said with a mischievous smile.

"What!?" Pearl looked away. "No! I would never!"

"Well I'm gonna!" With that she shot off after Garnet.

"Amethyst! Amethyst you can't-Hey wait up!" Pearl groaned chasing after her childish teammate. As she ran, she looked back once more at the spot where the creature sat. She didn't know why, but something about it really unsettled her.

 **A/N: There weren't many crossovers in this section. So I made one.**


	2. Ben Dies at the End

Ben Dies at the End

"And over there is the _Big Donut_ where my buddy Lars works, we can probably hook you up later if you're interested." Steven said pointing to one of the many stores he's shone Ben during their Beach City tour.

"Nah, I'm not much of a donut guy." Ben said. "You got any place that sells smoothies?" He asked looking around.

"Smoothies?" Steven put a hand to his chin. "I think you can get some smoothies from _Beach Citywalk Fries._ They sell mainly fries, but there's other stuff."

"Fries." Ben perked up. "Like chilly fries?" He asked with a hungry look in his eye.

"Oh yeah. They definitely have those." Steven said proudly. "We can go there if you want."

"Lead the way." Ben said putting his hands into his pockets.

As they continued their walk, Connie turned her attention toward Ben. "So Ben, where exactly are you from?"

"Well, I'm from Earth. Just Earth in an alternate dimension. My home town is Bellwood." Ben replied.

"Alternate dimensions. I thought those were just a theory." She pondered.

"Nah, I go to 'em all the time." Ben shrugged. "Alternate dimensions, alternate timelines, pocket dimensions. They kinda blend together after a while."

"Hey, have you ever been to another planet?" Steven asked.

"Yeah, plenty of times." Ben answered. "It's part of the job."

"Being a super hero is a job?" Connie asked.

"Nah, just a bonus. Technically I'm a Plumber. And before we do the "you fix people's toilets?" bit, in my world Plumbers are interplanetary law enforcement."

"You're a space cop!?" Steven beamed. The excitement of this meeting was really coming from him at this point. Ben had to admit, he liked the attention. But there was something else on his mind.

"Hey Steven, I got a question for you now." Ben stated. "How did you do that bubble thing earlier?"

"Oh that?" Steven smiled and pretended to wave it off. "That was just my Gem power." His act got a giggle out of Connie.

Ben smirked at the false modesty. "Alright, I'll bite. What's Gem power?"

"Nothing except the best thing ever!" Steven lifted the bottom of his shirt, showing that instead of a naval, he had a rather large reddish gemstone in his stomach. "I got magic powers."

Ben's eyes widened for a moment before he scratched his head. "Um…okay. So you're like a wizard or something?" Steven and Connie got a good laugh out of that one. "Not even close huh?"

"Nah I'll tell yah." Steven chuckled. "I'm a Crystal Gem, on my mom's side." Steven grasped the gem through his shirt. "My mom is from outer space. She passed away when she gave up her physical form to have me with my dad."

Ben decided not to inquire too much about that. Steven didn't seem to hang onto the tension too long either.

"And so I was born with magic powers." He said, now turning around to walk backwards so he could face Ben. "Connie, be my eyes. I've got a lesson to teach."

"Yessir." Connie gave a salute and ran around to place her back to Steven's, hooking their arms together so they walked in sync. Ben couldn't help but crack a smile. These were some weird kids.

"See, the Crystal Gems are aliens too. From another planet. There's Garnet, who is super cool. And Pearl who is super smart. And Amethyst, who is super…uh…" Steven pouted, he couldn't think of anything.

"Super wild?" Connie asked.

"Yeah! Amethyst is super wild. And fun too." Steven smiled. "They take care of me, and teach me all about gem culture and how to be a warrior and stuff."

"Neat. And they just live here in Beach City?" Ben asked.

"Kinda." Steven said. "We live a little further away. But they still come here sometimes. They protect beach city from monsters and stuff."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Monsters? This place has monsters?" He looked around, as if expecting to see one at random.

"Yep." Steven smirked. "And it's up to us Gems to protect everyone."

"And me too…sometimes." Connie said.

"Are you a Gem too?" Ben asked.

"Nope. I just wanna protect Steven…a-and the Earth." She stuttered making both of them blush. Ben just grinned and rolled his eyes, they were so obvious.

"So," they had finally reached the Citywalk Fries restaurant and were making their way to the counter. "Where do these monsters come from?" Whatever answer Ben had been expecting it wasn't for Steven trip and pull himself and Connie to the ground. He reached down to help the two of them up. "Are you guys okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Connie laughed. "Not the most danger I've been in today." Ben noticed as he helped her up that her hands were rough with calluses. She seemed to notice this and put them both out to display. "I've been training to fight alongside Steven, so I learned to use swords." She said proudly.

"Cool." Ben chuckled. He hadn't been expecting that at all. "You'll have to show me later. What about you Steven?"

"Oh." Steven looked away. "I don't use swords." He said rubbing his arms.

"No I meant are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Steven stood up quickly. "Come on let's get those chilly fries."

"Alright!" Ben pumped his fist. "And that sweet, sweet smoothie." He said following Steven. Behind them both, Connie looked worriedly at Steven. She couldn't be sure, but he seemed a little less upbeat than before.

* * *

Minutes later, Connie couldn't even tell the difference as Ben and Steven got into a smoothie slurping contest to see who would get brain freeze first. Needless to say Ben was much better than he let on, because now both he and Connie were cracking up while Steven held his head.

"Uhg! It's like I'm wearing a crown of snowballs." He groaned.

"Ha, ha! I warned you dude!" Ben said before taking another long slurp of his watermelon smoothie. "This is like a past time for me."

"You really should have known by the way he challenged you." Connie laughed. "But you were _so_ sure."

"I thought my appetite would win out." Steven said placing his face on the table, somehow he still managed to reach over and grab a chilly fry out of their shared basket. "But it didn't, I was deceived. How do you do it Ben?"

"It's a skill man." Ben shook his head. "It takes serious practice."

Connie, despite how well she reacted to the situation, was still full of questions for Ben. Since they were all eating, and Steven didn't seem to want to finish what he was saying before, she decided to ask a few more. "Hey Ben?"

Ben locked eyes with her from across the table. "What's up?"

"That thing you did before, when you changed. How did you do that?"

"Oh that? I was wondering when you were going to ask." Ben held up his left arm, showing of the green and white watch he was wearing. "It's cause of this. The Omnitrix." Both she and Steven (who suddenly shot up) stared wide eyed. "It's one of the most powerful devices in the universe. It lets me transform into a ton of different aliens."

"Whoa!" Steven yelled. "How many? How many?"

"Yeah how many?" Connie asked, just as loudly.

"Like seventy." Ben shrugged. Whether he was playing it cool or not didn't matter to the two kids as they gaped at the tiny watch. "But the creator of the Omnitrix says there are over one million DNA samples in-"

"A million aliens?" Steven gasped. "Connie did you hear that?"

"I heard!" She smiled "That's so amazing. I can't even imagine…" She trailed off, probably trying to imagine. Ben had to be honest, these kids kind of reminded him of himself back when he first got the Omnitrix. Something about this place just made him feel more relaxed.

"Can't even imagine what?" Asked a new voice from behind Ben. All three of them turned to see a man with an uneven tan, wearing a tank top and shorts. He looked pretty old, since he had a scraggly beard and appeared to be balding. The hair he did have grew all the way down his back.

"Hey dad!" Steven shouted. "Come meet my new friend." He gestured for the man to come closer, prompting Ben to stand up and hold out his hand as he'd been taught.

"Hi. I'm Ben Tennyson, nice to meet you." The older man reached out and shook his hand.

"Greg Universe, I'm Steven's dad, in case that wasn't obvious." He chuckled, confirming that 'Universe' was in fact Steven's real surname. "What are you kids over here chat'n about?"

"Ben's a superhero from another dimension." Steven said plainly. "He has a watch that lets him turn into aliens, a _million_ aliens. _And_ he's a space cop."

Mr. Universe gave Steven a quizzical look. "Wah? Is this another Gem thing?" That question seemed to be very appropriate when talking to Steven.

"Nope." Ben said. "All of its true though. I'm from another dimension, although I usually try to build up to it better." He shrugged. Greg stood puzzled for a few seconds, before reaching down and pulling out the fourth chair at their table.

"Yep, I gotta sit down. Pass me some fries." He reached out for Steven to pass the basket over to him. "I swear I'll never get used to this." He chuckled shaking his head.

"It's a process." Steven said, which Connie confirmed with a nod.

"You know." Ben said. "I can show you guys how the Omnitrix works." Gesturing to his watch.

"Really? Like right now?" Steven said excitedly.

"You don't need like a warrant or something?" Connie asked.

"Hope not." Ben said dialing a combination in. "Never used on before. I just kinda do what I want with it."

"Wait time out." Greg said swallowing a fry. "What's this about a warrant?" Just as he asked Ben pressed down the button at the center of the device, causing a bright flash of green light. All three of the onlookers had to cover their eyes, but when they opened them Ben was gone. In the place where he was standing was a…bizarre looking squarish gorilla thing. It looked like an ape made of-"Legos?" Greg asked.

"Tadda!" The creature said, raising its huge arms.

"Whoa!" Steven and Connie jumped up to get a closer look. "You're like a building block monster." Steven gawked.

"Building block _alien._ But yeah." Ben said. "I call this one Bloxx. Not the most creative name I know, but easy to remember." He took a few steps back from them. "Check it out." The sound of blocks being stacked could be heard as Bloxx expanded and rearranged his body, folding over himself until he'd build himself into a new, solid structure. "What do yah think?" Ben had turned himself into a miniature castle, complete with ramparts, towers, and a big gate. Steven, Connie, and even Mr. Universe looked with open mouths.

"That's so cool." Steven said. "Is it solid?" He knocked on the wall a few times, which caused Bloxx's face to fold out of the bricks right next to him.

"Yeah, it stays sturdy as long as I concentrate." He mused. "Once even managed to hold it together during atmospheric reentry. Bloxx is oddly durable."

"Can we go inside?" Connie asked, looking at all the different sides.

Ben raised his eyebrows a bit, well his brow, since Bloxx didn't have hair. "Uh sure I suppose. Nothing to see really, but you can go for it." Steven and Connie gave each other an excited look before stepping forward. "But no shoes." Ben added.

 _Later…_

The four of them were now on a beach, where Steven and Greg had set up a volley ball net.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get you some shorts?" Greg asked Ben. "It's usually more comfortable on the beach."

"Nah." Ben smiled. "I'm used to different environments at this point. Plus my aliens come with their own clothes." Ben said, activating the Omnitrix again. This time after the flash died down, there was a much shorter black and white creature, with little whiskers on the side of his head. "I call this one Ditto."

"Aw." Connie squeed. "You look so cute!" Causing Ditto to rub the back of his head.

"Yeah, that's what everyone says about Ditto." He chuckled. "Now, what do yah say we get this game started?" He asked, rubbing his hands together.

Steven gave him an odd look. "You're going to play as him? By yourself?"

"As Ditto yeah." Ditto smirked. "By myself?" Suddenly, Ditto's body split like cell, and now there were two Dittos. "Nah." One of them said. "I got my partner here." Said the other, and they high fived.

"Awesome!" Steven cheered. "You can clone yourself?"

"Indefinitely." One Ditto said. "But all I need is two."

"Yeah, so let's get going." Said the other Ditto grabbing the volley ball. "Last one there and so on and so forth." And they both dashed off, followed closely by Steven and Connie.

Greg stood and shook his head. "Yeap, never gonna get used to this." He smiled before following. "Hold up, I'll be the ref."

 _Even Later_

There was another green flash as Steven and Connie stood in the shallow water of the tide. Now there was a red armored creature standing before them with what looked like barnacles all over him.

"What's that one called?" Steven asked.

"I call him Water Hazard," Ben answered. "He's from the Andromeda galaxy. Check it out." He raised his hands into the air and blasted a huge torrent of water straight up, like a geyser, making it rain down onto the small party. Steven and Connie laughed as the held their hands up.

"Hey, where does all this water come from?" Connie asked.

Water Hazard shrugged. "Well, I know I can absorb it from just about anywhere. All I really know it that it gets compressed inside my arms and back." He then stopped spraying and held his arm out to the water. "But that's not all." With a gesture, the water in front of him contorted and morphed into a perfect sphere, which he lifted out of the ocean. He then morphed it into a cube, followed by a double helix.

"Wow." Connie smiled. "Steven, are you seeing this?" She asked, not really looking at him. But Ben did. Steven's face had dropped into a sad frown. Ben didn't say anything, but he did press the Omnitrix again, turning back into his normal self and letting the water drop.

"Maybe we should call it a day guys." He said, putting on a smile. "Sun's starting to set." It was true. The sun was getting pretty low. Ben started to walk back to the dryer sand.

"Aw. All right." Connie said, grabbing Steven's hand "Come on lets go Steven."

"R-right." Steven shook his head. His mind had wandered a bit.

"You okay?" She asked him, turning to look at him directly.

Steven shook his head and gave a small smile. "I'm fine. Just getting tired I guess." He pulled her arm this time. "Come on, maybe Ben will show us one more alien." He said perking up a bit.

"Okay but-"

"Hey Ben!" Steven called out.

Ben looked back as Greg passed him a soda. "What's up dude?"

"Can you show us just one more transformation?" Steven asked as he caught up to them.

Ben chuckled a bit and put his soda down. "Sure, one more couldn't hurt. But then I should probably give the Omnitrix time to cool down." He started to dial in another combination. "It may be advanced, but the circuitry is delicate. It malfunctions even if I hit it too hard." There was another green flash as Ben changed forms yet again. Where he stood there was now a very tall green plant-like creature, with orange hands and a flame-like head that came out of his body like a flower. "Swampfire, all right."

"So does this guy shoot fire or something?" Greg asked, opening his own soda.

"Yep." Swampfire held out a hand and created a small flame. "I don't think I should go around blasting the beach for no reason though.

Both Steven and Connie stared at the flame with excited grins, until Connie reeled back and covered her nose. "Ugh. What's that smell?" She asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Connie, don't be rude." Steven frowned.

"Nah it's my bad." Ben said. "Swampfire creates fire with methane, which smells…well it smells like fart."

"I always thought it was the other way around." Greg said taking another sip of his soda.

Swampfire let the flame die out before putting his hands to his hips. "Well there is a safer, and less smelly power I can use." He held up one hand and rubbed his fingers together, sprinkling something onto the ground. Almost instantly, a small cluster of vines began growing out of the sand, getting bigger until it stood as tall as Swampfire himself. "And that's just with a little bit of seed." The three onlookers gave a tiny round of applause.

"That's pretty neat." Greg commented. "Reminds me of a trick Rose used to do with flowers."

"Oh yeah." Steven said. "The Gems told me mom did have control over plants." He thought back to the magic moss, and the time he created sentient watermelons. "I wonder if I could do that." He said putting a hand to his chin.

"Be my guest." Swampfire shrugged. "Without my control they'll just wither out here on the beach."

Steven rubbed his hands together, as if preparing to cast a spell. "Okay, here we go." He then thrust his hands forward dramatically. "Wiggle!" He shouted.

Nothing happened.

"Hng, shake!" He pushed forward again.

"Budge! Wave! Um…Bend slightly!" She kept thrusting his hands forward but still nothing happed. "Aw come on." He pouted putting his hands down. "I did it before…kinda."

Greg took another sip of his soda. "Maybe it gets easier with age? Like singing a low note."

Swampfire chuckled. "It's not like pushing or pulling. At least not for me." Without any gesture from Swampfire the plant begins to wave as though it were dancing. "It's like moving a limb, except you can't feel it. You just sorta know it's there."

Steven gave him a quizzical look.

"Um, but I'm sure it'll get easier with time." He added. "It took me a few years to figure out all of my aliens' powers. Some of them I didn't get until I got older." He then pointed his thumb to himself. "Swampfire here didn't even look like this until a few months ago. Next thing I know he's bigger and stronger than ever, just when I needed his power the most."

That seemed to cheer Steven up a bit, and Greg gave him a reassuring smile. Connie then placed a hand on his arm. "I'm sure you'll get it eventually." She said. Steven smiled, before giving a determined nod.

"Then I'll just keep trying until I'm needed most." He said, which made Swampfire smirk.

"Go for it kid." He said gesturing to his plant, making it a bit smaller, until it was around Steven's height. "Maybe that'll make things simpler." With that, Steven cracked his silent knuckles, and pushed forward again. "Try to relax." Ben said. "Remember, no matter how hard you strain, it's not attached to you." Steven exhaled heavily, and then took a slow, deep breath. His face relaxed from a frown, to a neutral and calm expression. He began gently waving his arms, trying to match the plant's motions with his.

Then suddenly, the ground began to shake. At first it was subtle, but then.

"Whoa!" Connie smiled. "Steven are you doing this?"

Steven stopped, wide eyed, and looked around. The shaking did not stop. "Um, I seriously hope not." He really hated when he lost control of his powers. The four of them began looking around frantically. If Steven wasn't causing the earthquake, it could be natural. But none of the four could ignore the constant threat of unnatural disasters.

"Over there!" Greg yelled, pointing to a dune up the beach. The other three looked up just as a massive creature leaped from behind the hill of sand and landed just a few meters in front of them, launching sand into the air and knocking them down with the shifting beach.

Swampfire was the first to get his bearings, as he leaped up immediately and set fire to his palms. "You guys alright?" He asked, not taking his eyes off of the creature on front of them. It was a four legged beast, with black skin covered in indigo colored veins, or were they cracks? It had a row of white razor like hair going down its back, and a doglike face with a pig snout at the end. Ben expected a growl at any moment.

 _Heheheheeeeeehehehe~_

Or that. Laughing like a hyena was much more intimidating for some reason.

"Whoa! Wasn't ready, definitely wasn't ready for today!" Greg jumped up and pulled Connie to her feet. "Steven we gotta-"

Before he could finish Steven had jumped up and summoned his shield. "You and Connie go get the Gems!" Steven yelled. "Me and Ben can handle this."

"What!?" Greg and Connie yelled. The creature immediately swiped a paw forward at Swampfire, who jumped back and launched a massive column of flame from his hands, pushing the beast back. "Steven this is out of your league!" Greg yelled. "You need to come too."

"But I can help!" Steven responded, just as the beast side-stepped out of Swampfire's line of fire and let out a loud-

 _BAUF!_

-bark that sent a shockwave directly at the party, and shoved them all back in a wave of sand. Once again Swampfire immediately recovered and launched a huge fire ball at the creature, which it dodged before making a dash at the plant alien. Swampfire charged in response, loosening two tendrils from his arms. Just as the two were about to clash, he lit the tips of both vines on fire and whipped them both in a cross pattern into the face of the beast. The creature barked and stepped back as it was assaulted with flaming whips, before Swampfire broke of the whips and cupped his hands to unleash another huge blast of fire. This time the creature jumped back several meters to get away from the flame, but even as it dodged Swampfire pelted it with fire balls as it desperately tried to recover.

"Aw, what's wrong?" Ben mocked with a smirk. "You were all eager to play catch just a minute ago." He held his hands over his head once more as he created a massive fireball and blasted it at the beast. Although it tried to dodge, as soon as the fireball hit the ground it exploded into an inferno, launching the beast into the air. Ben smirked. Before Swampfire bloomed, he never would have been strong enough to do that.

Behind him, Steven, Connie, and Greg looked in awe. They'd seen battles before. Far more elegant ones at that. But to see a strange new warrior fight a Gem beast by himself with blasts of fire was something new and interesting. Steven was starry eyed. Even in his strangest dreams he'd never imagined meeting a super hero like this.

Swampfire punched the ground with both arms, and pressed down until both were submerged to the elbow. Within seconds a huge pillar of vines shot up from the ground right beneath the monster and pushed it high into the air. The vines began to wrap and tie themselves around the creature, and its weight began to bend the plant over until it dangled like a fruit from a tree. It barked and struggled, but was unable to gain any leverage. Finally, a single vine grew from the plant and tied a knot around its mouth like a muzzle.

Swampfire smirked at his handy work. "Well that was fun while it lasted." He pulled his arms from the ground and dusted of his palms. "But maybe you should hang around here for a while." After chuckling at his own terrible pun, he turned back to the other members of the party, as they stood back with dropped jaws. "You guys okay back there?" He asked, waving at them.

Steven was the first to jump up. "Oh man that was awesome!" He yelled pumping his fists. "The way you shot that fire, and how you pulled out those vine whips. Man that was cool!" He said running up to Ben. "You even did the one liner at the end. You really are a superhero!"

Ben rubbed the back of his head. "Oh you heard that?" He laughed nervously. "Not my best one honestly, it's easier with people I've fought before." He admitted. "How are the other two?"

"Were fine. Relatively speaking." Greg said giving a thumbs up as Connie ran up to Steven's side.

"What were you thinking?" She asked Steven, in a clearly frustrated tone. "Why would you try to stay and fight that thing?" Steven looked away nervously.

"Heh, well you know?" He tapped his fingers together. "It's just I…." He grit his teeth together. "Kinda wanted to do a Superhero team up?" He admitted, with Connie giving him a look that said 'Of course you did.'

"Maybe next time buddy." Swampfire said. "What do we do with this guy though?" He gestured over to the tangled beast, still struggling to break free. "I'm mean, do people come and take it away, or tranq it or something?" He asked crossing his arms.

"Oh, we can just wait for the Crystal Gems to get here." Steven said. "They can turn it ba-I mean they can put it somewhere safe." He said nervously, looking away again. Ben wasn't nosy enough to ask further questions. Before they could move on however, he heard a familiar buzzing sound. One that he couldn't quite place.

"Guys!" Greg yelled. The others looked up to see him pointing at Swampfire's plant trap, which was now short one rampaging monster!

"Oh great." Swampfire said looking around warily. He lit his hands on fire and held them out, read to blast the-

 _PHSOOW!_

Steven was ready to summon his shield when he heard the blast. It wasn't until little flecks of slime fell on his arm did he look up to see one of the most horrifying things head ever witnessed.

"OH MY GOSH!" Greg yelled, recoiling from shock.

Connie could do little to suppress the high pitched scream she let out, a sound that only made the situation more horrifying for Steven as he choked back his own cry of terror. The entire top half of Swampfire's body was gone! Blasted into burned tendrils and gross smelling slime. The smell of methane was so thick that Steven's hyperventilating was probably doing more harm than good.

"Steven!" His eyes were locked on the scene in front of him, but he heard Pearls voice shouting at him over the sound of his own ringing ears.

Suddenly both he found himself lifted and pulled into the air and great speed, landing several meters from where he was. His eyes immediately locked back onto the destroyed Swampfire, before it was forcibly turned towards the face of Pearl. "Steven? Steven are you okay? Answer me!" She started to shake him, and he let out a small grunt. "What? What was that?" She asked, looking desperate.

"Pearl calm down!" He heard Garnet yell. She must have been holding Connie because he could still hear her screaming.

"But there was a huge explosion of gas!" She yelled. "He could still be vulnerable to that! I had no idea the creature was full of methane!" Steven grunted again, his eyes started to cloud up with tears.

"Y-you…"

"Yes?" she asked, desperately trying to smile.

"You…you killed him!" He shouted, sitting up rapidly. "You killed him!"

"What?" She leaned back a bit. "Killed who? Greg?" She looked around. "No, I'm sure Amethyst grabbed him."

"Ben! You killed Ben! You killed my Friend!" Steven had never been so over-come with emotion that he felt nothing but shock, but the part of him that still had hope made him leap to his feet and run back down the beach. "I have to heal him before it's too late!"

 **A/N: Timing!**


	3. A Shared History

A Shared History

"Oh man! Oh man oh man!" Steven yelled, pulling at his hair as he ran closer to where Swampfire was standing. Or rather, what was left of him. He then started licking his hands like crazy, trying to make sure he had enough to heal Ben as quickly as possible. But his friends seemed to have other ideas, since Steven was suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled back into Pearl's arms.

"Steven what are you doing?" She asked as he struggled to break free. "Steven expl-" She didn't get to finish as Steven _kicked_ his way out of her grasp and took off into a sprint down the beach again. Despite how shocked she was at his defiance it obviously had something to do with that creature she'd just attacked…which was starting to move again!

Sure enough, the tendrils and vines that had been burned and torn were sticking up and starting to wind themselves around each other. Swampfire was re-growing himself.

Pearl was about to leap into action when she felt a heavy hand hold her in place, just as Connie of all people zipped past her! She looked up to see Garnet, shaking her head.

"Hold on for a second." She said, in her usual cool way of speaking. Although something wasn't quite right with her body language. Pearl couldn't put her finger on it, thanks to that thick visor Garnet always wore. So she turned her attention back to Steven, just as the plant-like creature was engulfed in a burst of green light.

Ben shook his head as he came out of his transformation. He checked his arms and face to make sure everything was in place. "Alright, I'm-UGH!" And he looked up just in time to be tackled to the ground by a hammy little kid. "S-Steven? What are you-Ack!" He grunted as he felt his ribcage being squeezed.

"You're alive!" Steven yelled with joy, nearly crushing Ben as he hugged him. "I can't believe it, but you're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive." Ben said, trying get a breath in. "At least for now. Dude seriously what-" Ben stopped as he looked down to see Steven's face, dirtied with snot and tears. "Um."

"Ben!"

Ben looked up just in time to be tackled _again_ by Connie who, from what he could see, had also been crying.

"Guys, seriously I'm fine." He said nervously. He'd never been in this kind of situation before.

"B-but you exploded." Connie said.

"Into slime." Steven added.

"Swampfire's a plant. He grows back, even his head." He said with a light chuckle, hoping to lighten the mood. "It happens all the time. Especially when I'm Swampfire…or Bloxx…or Diamondhead that one time." He tried to joke, but nothing seemed be working. Be looked down at the two kids sadly, and sighed. "I'm sorry I scared you guys." He said. "Really, sometimes I forget that what I'm used to isn't what other people are used to. Think you can forgive me?"

The two kids gave their own relieved smiles, and nodded. With that, the three of them pulled themselves off of the ground just as the rest of their now larger group walked up to them.

"Hey, you guys alright?" Greg called out. "We weren't sure what-You can put me down now Amethyst." He said, noting that Amethyst was still holding him over her head.

"My bad." She said, dropping him into the sand.

"Thanks." He grunted, starting to stand up and turning his attention back to Steven, Connie and Ben. "We weren't sure what was happening when you guys fell over."

Ben rubbed the back of his neck and gave a slightly less laid back smile than usual. "Yeah we're fine." He said. "Steven and Connie were just worried about me."

"Well so was I." Greg laughed humorlessly. "Your whole top half was gone! What happened?"

Ben shrugged. "Dunno. That blast came out of nowhere."

"Pearl did it." Amethyst said, pointing at Pearl.

"Amethyst!" Pearl flinched when all eyes turned to her. "Well I just…I mean I thought that-"

" _We_ thought you were a monster." Garnet said, stepping forward. "We were trying to protect Steven." She pushed up her glasses, making them gleam. "Sorry." She said simply, before stepping back.

Ben's jaw dropped at the simple apology. The way she worded it you'd think they'd scratched his car or something.

"Yeah, out bad." Amethyst said nonchalantly and looking in some other direction.

"Very sorry." Pearl said bowing quickly, before turning back to Steven. "Steven, what's going on here? How do you know this…?" She looked back at Ben. "Person? And why is the beach covered in glass?" She said, gesturing out to the charred, shiny beach where the sand had fused into glass.

"Was there a fight?" Amethyst asked. "Did we miss it? Did you win?"

Greg, however, had noticed the flabbergasted look on Ben's face. It was the same one he'd made all the time back when he'd met the Crystal Gems. Before Steven could answer Amethyst or Pearl, Greg stepped between them. "Okay, before we do anything else. Let's find a place where you guys can sit down and talk." He offered. "I don't know about you Gems, but we had a _very_ long day."

"Ooh, ooh." Steven jumped up and raised his hand. "Campfire time!"

"Good plan." Greg said. "But we also gotta get Connie home."

"Aw." She and Steven whined.

"So while _I_ do that, you can introduce Ben to the Gems. Come on Connie." He said as he started to walk away.

Connie sighed tiredly. "Alright. Goodnight Steven." She said hugging him.

"Bye Connie."

"Goodnight Ben." She said waving, before jogging to catch up with Greg. Ben gave his own smile and wave as they both left, leaving him with Steven and the Gems.

The whole time they stood there, Pearl stared at Ben warily. She had no idea who he was or how Steven knew him. Garnet was the same, not that anyone could tell, given her sunglasses. Amethyst…was just digging in her ear.

"So~" Steven said with a huge grin on his face. "Who's ready for a CAMPFIRE!?" He cheered.

 _Several Minutes Later…_

The five of them sat awkwardly on their logs surrounding their beach campfire. Ben kept fiddling with his watch, trying to ignore the fact that Pearl was staring at him. Amethyst kept spitting into the fire, hardly paying attention.

Garnet was…

And Steven sat next to her, looking back and forth between everyone, hoping to break the ice somehow. Apparently he'd pictured this differently in his head.

He didn't really have too however, since Pearl finally said something.

"So," She said, immediately drawing all eyes to her. "Your name is Ben?"

"Ben Tennyson, yeah." He said quickly.

"And you're from…where exactly?"

"UGH!" Amethyst grunted. "Quit beating around the bush Pearl." She perked up and looked at Ben. "How come you were a plant monster before?" She asked with a mischievous look on her face.

"Amethyst!" Pearl hissed through gritted teeth.

"What? We're all thinking it." She responded, rolling her eyes.

Ben raised an eyebrow at the purple girl's bluntness but at least now he didn't have to worry about breaking the tension, so he relaxed a bit. "That's kind of a long story." He said. "But basically, I'm from another dimension."

"Which one?" Pearl asked.

That caught him off guard. "They have names?" He said, putting a hand to his chin. "No idea."

"Then how can we know you're telling the truth?" Garnet asked a bit harshly.

"Because," Steven stood up and grinned. "Ben's a superhero space cop!" Causing the Gems to stare. Ben smiled and rolled his eyes. There he was being blunt again.

"Superhero?" Pearl asked with a bit of disbelief.

"Space cop?" Garnet repeated dryly.

"Dude. For real?" Amethyst asked with a frown. Apparently none of them believed that story. Ben wouldn't either if it was said that plainly. "Prove it." She said, grinning at Ben. She then jumped up from her seat and landed right next to him on his log, almost making him fall off. "Do something super!" She said, leaning _way_ too close to his face.

"Yeah show'm Ben!" Steven cheered. "Use your tricks-thingy."

"Omnitrix." Ben corrected, trying to regain his personal space. He looked over at the other two Gems, who were crossing their arms, waiting for further explanation. "Well I guess seeing is believing." He said standing up. He activated the Omnitrix and dialed in his choice. "Just don't freak out again." He pushed down on the core, releasing the familiar burst of green light.

Everyone, with the exclusion of Garnet, shielded their eyes until it died down. Before them stood a tall, armored, yellow creature. He appeared to have metal pistons in his elbows, and his head looked like a Corinthian helmet.

"Whoa!" Steven cheered. "Armadillo!"

"Armo _drillo_." Ben said with a wink.

"H-how did you…what _are_ you?" Pearl asked in a panicked voice. Amethyst stood up and grinned widely.

"Wow, you're like a whole 'nother person." She said circling his body.

"Amethyst, you shape shift all the time." Garnet added.

"Yeah, but I can't change colors."

"That's what the Omnitrix does." He said crossing his arms, satisfied with his ability to show off. "It changes one creature into another one, down to the DNA."

"You mean this thing?" She said suddenly jumping onto his shoulder and pointing down at the device implanted in his chest.

"Y-yeah." He stuttered. "What are you doing?"

"Amethyst get down from there. That's rude." Pearl said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Not as rude as you shooting him in the face!" She snapped back.

"Nice." Ben smirked holding up his claws for a high five, which she returned.

Pearl's entire face turned blue with embarrassment. "Well that was…I didn't mean to…I was just…"

"Ah relax." Ben said waving it off. "No harm done. I've been shot at for worse reasons. I mean you were just trying to protect Steven and Connie right?"

"Well yes, of course." She replied, crossing her arms.

"I've got a question." Garnet interjected. "By what means did you arrive here? Steven says you fell out of the sky."

"Through a portal." Steven added.

"Through a portal, with some samurai robots." She said, monotone. "Is this true?"

"Well sorta." Armodrillo scratched his head. "They weren't samurai though. Their called Techadon robots. The ones I fought were cheap, but they vary."

Garnet continued to stare at him. It made Ben a bit uncomfortable not knowing her full expression, especially since she didn't respond. "What's your story?"

Armodrillo chuckled nervously. "You-uh…got time to kill?"

"Yeah! Campfire stories!" Steven cheered, but then looked around. "Aw wait, I didn't bring marshmallows." He added sadly.

"I did." Garnet said, pulling a bag from behind her back and handing it to Steven.

"Woohoo!"

Armodrillo gave her a blank stare. "Y-you…just carry those around?"

"Yeah." She replied.

He shook his head. The red woman was just unreadable. "Um alright." He grunted. "I guess if everyone's comfortable-"

"I'm comfortable." Amethyst said, hanging over his shoulder.

"Mfhhhm." Steven said with a mouth full of marshmallows.

"I've been ready for ages." Pearl said, doing little to hide her impatience.

Garnet grabbed a marshmallow and started chewing it.

He sighed. "Alright well, it started about six years ago. Back when I was 10…"

"Question!" Amethyst yelled, making Ben jump. "How old are you now?"

"Um..."

"Amethyst!" Pearl snapped. "If he said it was six years ago when he was 10 then he's 16 and-you're only 16!?" She shouted.

"Well I'll be 17 in like a month but…"

"How does a 16 year old human end up with that… _thing?"_ She pointed dramatically.

"Well I was just about to tell…"

"Don't lecture me about math. Division is hard and boring." Amethyst said. "Besides he doesn't mind me asking right?"

"Not really but…"

"But he's practically an infant! He's barely older than Steven!" Pearl yelled. "Can you explain that?" Pearl crossed her arms.

Amethyst frowned. "What difference does it-"

"Guys!" Steven yelled, drawing all eyes to him. "I wanna hear the story! Questions are for after." He said before stuffing down another marshmallow.

"But Steven-" Pearl started, until Garnet lifted her hand signaling her to stop.

"Questions are for after." She said coolly. "Please continue."

Ben blinked in surprise. He'd barely even gotten out a sentence. "Okay, so as I was saying," He let out a sigh. "It started back when I was 10 years old. I went on a road trip with my Grampa and my cousin Gwen. On the first night, when we went camping, a meteor fell from the sky and landed near our campsite. I went to go check it out, and when I got there I found out it wasn't a meteor, but a pod." He said. "And inside it was-"

"A space baby!" Amethyst yelled, making him choke on his own breath.

" _Amethyst!"_ Pearl hissed. Not that she heard since she and Ben were cracking up at her joke.

"I don't get it." Steven said, trying figure it out.

"It'll come to you in a minute." Garnet said, reaching for another marshmallow.

"O-okay." Armodrillo said, wiping a tear from his eye. "But seriously, inside the pod was the Omnitrix."

"Whoa." Steven said with stars in his eyes. "It fell from space."

"Pretty much." Armodrillo continued. "When I reached out to touch it, it jumped out of the crater and right on to my wrist. It seriously freaked me out, and I couldn't get it off. After a while I accidentally turned it on and transformed for the first time."

"What'd you turn into?" Steven asked.

"Heatblast. He can shoot fire."

"Nice." Amethyst said, imagining herself breathing fire.

Pearl frowned. "That kind of power in the hands of a child? You're lucky you didn't burn the forest down."

"Oh I almost did." Ben said. "But that's not even the exciting part. Next thing I know there are robot drones coming out of the sky and attacking me!" He said, adding more intensity to his voice. "At first it was just a little one, which I beat pretty easy. But then there was this huge one." He said lifting his arm into the air (the one Amethyst wasn't resting on) for emphasis. "Like 60ft tall."

"Wow, how'd you beat it?" Steven asked.

"Yes," Pearl added. "How did a child defeat a 60ft robot?" She asked with clear disbelief.

"By accident." He shrugged. "I turned into Diamondhead."

"The guy from earlier!" Steven cheered.

"Yeah him. But that was on my first day, so I didn't even know what his powers were." Armodrillo scratched his head. "But lucky for me he shot me with a laser."

… "What?" Amethyst asked.

"I was able use Diamondhead's body to reflect the laser back and destroy it. It was pretty awesome really."

"So it was a fluke." Pearl stated.

"Yep."

"And that makes you a hero?"

"Course not." Ben added. "But the stuff I did after that did. See after I got the Omnitrix, I decided to be a superhero." He shrugged.

"Why?" Pearl asked.

"Why not?" He answered. "I had the power to turn into 10 different aliens. I helped a lot of people that summer. Fought a bunch of super villains. You know."

"All that when you were 10?" Steven asked. "Man you are so awesome!"

"Yeah, I am." Ben laughed. "But more importantly I actually got to be what I always dreamed about. Things just got more intense after that."

"And you've just been wearing it since then?" Amethyst asked.

"Naw. I took it off for a while when I was 13. Can't remember why for the life of me." Armodrillo scratched his chin…area. "Probably something stupid and angsty like _trying to be normal_ or something. When I put it back on it recalibrated, but it made all my aliens naked."

… "What?" Amethyst asked.

"Not important." Ben said quickly. "Anyway-"

"Question." Garnet said suddenly. "Where did the robots come from?"

"Yeah and why did you keep the Omnitrix? I mean it clearly wasn't yours." Pearl said crossing her arms.

"Both of those are good questions. But now it's my turn." Armodrillo said. "How 'bout a prologue of your backstory?" Ben asked the question in good humor, but he didn't expect an uncomfortable silence to follow. Steven looked around nervously. "Uh. Was that outta line?"

"N-no way dude." Amethyst stuttered with a chuckle. "It's just…uh…"

"It's a boring story!" Pearl interjected. "You know how it goes. Aliens come to Earth, next thing you know we live here! Hehe." She said holding up her arms defensively.

"What she said." Added Garnet. "Plus it's personal, and we don't feel like sharing."

"Thanks for being straight forward." Ben said dryly. "Alright then, different question. Where do the monsters come from?"

Pearl's eyes widened. "M-monsters? What monsters? There aren't any monster here!"

Armodrillo squinted at her. "Um, yeah there are. Steven already told me. Plus I fought one already remember?"

"How do you know it didn't follow _you_ here?" Pearl said in a 'take that' tone. "You fight villains 'all the time' right?"

"Pearl, you're reaching." Garnet said. "He just said Steven told him."

"But Garnet…" Pearl had a desperate look on her face.

"Our monsters are our problem." Garnet said to Ben. "Sorry, but we can't tell you that either."

"Sorry dude." Amethyst shrugged.

"Fine." Armodrillo grumbled. "What can you tell me about being a 'Crystal Gem' then?" He asked with thinly veiled sarcasm. "Or is everything in this dimension classified?"

"Oh being a Gem is awesome!" Amethyst exclaimed flipping off of Armodrillo's shoulder. "We've got all kinds of magic powers. Like this!" Amethyst said before bursting into purple light. When the light died down, Armodrillo was mildly surprised to see a purple version of himself with a mouth and eye lashes, wearing a bow and skirt. "Well? How do look?" She asked, swinging her hips awkwardly.

"PFFT HAHAHAHA!" Ben couldn't contain himself. With everything that'd been happening this was way out of left field. "That _is_ awesome! HAHAHA" Armodrillo held his hands to his ribcage (?). Behind him Steven was rolling, his mouth full of marshmallows.

"Oh for the love of…" Pearl pinched her nose. "Of all the juvenile stunts." Her eye twitched as she watched Amethyst walk back and forth shaking her hips. "Garnet please say something." She half begged the woman sitting perfectly still across from her. Although looking at her now, she seemed to share Pearls frustration, as her mouth had formed into a snarl, and she was tapping her fingers against her arms. "Um, Garnet? Are you alright?"

Garnet suddenly sat up at attention. "I'm fine." She said with her features shifting back to normal. "I just. Got a weird feeling."

"Something serious, or something irritating?" Pearl asked.

"Serious."

"Hey, what can this guy do?" Steven suddenly asked. Unaware of the conversation.

"Armodrillo drills." Ben replied, morphing his hands into spinning drills. "Brace yourselves." He said before shoving his arms into the ground, sending up a geyser of sand.

"Hey!" Pearl shouted, trying to cover her eyes and hair. "Couldn't you do that somewhere else?" She asked, only to find that there was no one there but a swirling pit of sand. "Where'd he go?" Her voice suddenly dropped. "What happened?"

"I think he's underground." Amethyst said, still in Ame-dillo form. "Neat."

"Wow, he disappeared so fast." Steven said looking around. "I think I can learn to _dig_ this guy."

"Boo." Ame-drillo gave Steven a thumbs down. "No points for you."

"Well this is just great." Pearl said. "Not only do we get stuck babysitting a shape shifter from another dimension but it turns out he's practically a child, who for some reason uses alien weapons as party tricks."

"I wonder if he can still hear us." Ame-drillo stated. Pearl subconsciously bit her tongue. Suddenly the ground began to rumble and a cone of sand pushed its way out behind Steven. As the sand fell Armodrillo emerged shaking his head and tail.

"Sorry 'bout that. I've never tried to dig in sand before." He said. "That stuff is loose. I was at the bottom of the beach in like a second. There's some weird stuff down there."

Steven grinned widely, forever amazed. "Man your aliens are the _coolest_."

"Most of them are, yes." Ben chuckled.

"Yeah, they're pretty neat." Ame-drillo said, shifting back to normal. "But can they do _this_?" She suddenly reached her hand to the gem on her chest and pulled out a pronged whip, covered in purple barbs.

"Magic weapons?" Armodrillo stared. " _Very_ nice." He complimented as he walked back to his seat. "How does that work?"

"Actually, that not something we can-" Pearl was about to say.

"Tell me?" Ben cut her off. "Fine I get it." He grumbled. "But still, I don't think there are aliens like you in my world."

"Well of course not." Pearl stated with a smirk. "Throughout history Gems have been one of the most powerful and influential species in the entire galaxy. With mastery over magic and science superior to any other known race, there's no way you'd never have heard of Gems if we did exist in your world."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I meant." Armodrillo said. "But with less words. I was kind of wondering if I might be able to turn into a Gem. It seems like fun" Steven and Amethysts eyes both widened.

"Seriously!?" Steven asked. "Could you actually do that?"

"That'd be so cool." Amethyst said. "I wonder what you'd look like, or what your weapon would be." She tried to imagine Ben as a Gem, but all she could think of was Ben with a Green gem on his forehead.

"I doubt that." Pearl interjected. "Gem biology is too complex for humans to understand. Between our true bodies and our energy based ones there's no device in the universe outside of Home World's that could interpret it." She finished with a shrug and a satisfied smile.

"Aren't you silicon based life-forms?" Armodrillo asked. Pearls entire face suddenly dropped, and her eyes widened.

"H-how could you have known that?" She asked in a rather loud tone.

"Ha! He out thunk you!" Amethyst laughed.

Armodrillo shrugged. "Lots of aliens in the Omnitrix are silicon based. I turn into them all the time. You'd actually be the third crystal based life form I'd ever turned into. If it works anyway." He added.

"I wanna see!" Steven jumped up. "That would be so great! Then we could be 5 Crystal Warriors instead of 4."

Pearl, for a fraction of a second, felt a bit dejected before composing herself again. "Well, there's also taking into account our energy based bodies. Only our gems are silicon based."

"So your gems are your true bodies?" Armodrillo asked. "And your humanoid forms are just energy?"

"Yes, exactly. No technology could replicate that. I'd be impossible to program." She huffed.

"Well I have energy based life forms too. Lots of them. Except Anodites for some reason." He added boastfully. "Plus, I don't have to program it. The Omnitrix automatically scans in new alien DNA within a certain area."

Before Pearl could utter another word, Garnet suddenly stood up. "You've been scanning us this whole time!?" She shouted, breaking the fickle atmosphere and causing everyone to take a small step back.

"Well not on purpose." Armodrillo quickly said. "It's automatic."

"You could have mentioned that earlier!" She said walking towards him. Amethyst quickly moved over to wear Pearl was sitting.

"Garnet?" Steven wasn't quite sure what was going on, but Garnet rarely, if ever got angry unless something serious was happening.

"I wasn't thinking about it until now." Armodrillo did not move or stutter. Ben was no stranger to standing his ground. "It might have happened earlier, back when I was _missing a head._ I wouldn't have even heard the scanner."

"Who are you really?" She said poking a finger into his chest. "And what do want with Steven?"

For ages they all stood there, frozen in place from sudden remark. All that could be heard was the crackling of the campfire, as Steven looked back and forth between Garnet and Ben. He shifted his gaze over to Pearl and Amethyst, who stood just as wide eyed as he was, and trying to hide behind each other.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ben asked, frowning as hard as Armadrillo could. "I just met Steven today."

"After falling out of a portal, from a dimension you refuse to tell us the name of." She stated.

"Oh, you're one to talk. Ms. "Its personal and we don't feel like telling." He taunted. "I was attacked by a monster today, which I'm admittedly cool with because, you know it's whatever. Happens all the time. But then you won't tell me who you are, or where it came from, even after you blow of my head!"

"Guys." Steven tried half-heartedly to interject but Ben and Garnet seemed to only focus on each other.

"Since this morning," Garnet crossed her arms. "We've had nothing but problems. Monsters disappearing and reappearing before we can even locate them. And then some shapeshifting stranger comes out of nowhere. Sounds like you're the one withholding information." No sooner did she say this did a familiar beeping sound ring from the Omnitrix. Garnet stepped back and braced herself as the flash of green light died down and Ben stood in Armodrillo's face wearing an intense frown of his own.

"The only reason you don't know more about me," he started. "Is because I can't be sure I can trust you." He pointed his own finger. "I mean I was fine until a while ago. I'm used to aliens on Earth. Steven told me you were good people and I believed him."

Steven looked at the ground, suddenly feeling guilty. Did he do something wrong?

"And I still believe him" Ben added, letting the tension leave his face. Both Steven and Garnet looked surprised by his turnaround, and Amethyst and Pearl perked up as well.

"Look, I get it alright." Ben held up his arms submissively. "I'm a stranger, and a dangerously unpredictable one at that. I get it all the time. Even back home parents warn their kids not to emulate me. I'm not much of a role model." He laughed humorlessly. "It's obvious that you care a lot about Steven and want to protect him. And since you're already protecting this city from monsters having me suddenly appear must have been a bit nerve racking. But regardless of what you think of me I am a _superhero._ " He claimed. "If there are people in danger here, I can help. You don't have to trust me with everything, but if there's anything I can do to help fight these monsters at least point me in the right direction."

Garnet stood stern faced, not moving a single inch from the position she was holding. Slowly, she let out a long, tired sigh. "Fine." She muttered.

"Garnet," Steven approached her, tapping her leg. "This isn't like you. Is something wrong?"

"Yeah." Amethyst added. "You've been acting weird today. I mean you don't talk much, but you're quieter than normal."

"I've…noticed it to." Pearl said nervously. "You haven't really been yourself."

Garnets arms had dropped to her side, her fists shaking. "It's…I…" Slowly she reached up to her visor, pulling it off and revealing three different colored eyes. Eyes which drooped in tired sadness. "Steven. There's something I have to tell you. All of you." She looked at Pearl and Amethyst.

"I can leave if-" Ben started to say.

"No. It's fine." Garnet said quickly. She looked down at Steven. "Steven, I don't know why but…" She paused. "I can't see you're future." The other Gems stepped back in surprise. "I can barely see any of our futures."

"Wah?" Amethysts jaw dropped.

"That shouldn't be possible." Pearl whispered.

"Garnet, what does that mean?" Steven asked, his hands shaking. "Am I gonna-"

"I don't know…" Garnet sighed. "Normally I can look into the future and see all kinds of possibilities for all of us. All the choices we could make, and even the random things that could happen to us in our everyday life. But now…I don't know it just blurred out." She looked away from him. "The other night while I was training I had a vision. My future sight took my mind to a place I'd never seen before, and all I felt was..." She stopped, and then shook her head. "The point is, I can't see straight any more. It's like watching a TV with bad reception. I only get images. Bits and pictures, with hardly any sound or coherence. Maybe I just depend too much on it, but when I can't see your future Steven, I worry. On top of that, these new monsters are appearing in and out of nowhere and I can barely keep track of them." She looked up at Ben. "And then you showed up. A person I'd never heard of. Something I could have never predicted."

"That does seem a little sketchy." Ben nodded. "I guess I'd be worried too."

Garnet continued to stare at him before putting her visor back on. "Forgive me if I seem rude, but you were right, Steven is important to me." She admitted. "I just wish I knew what was going on. I'm sorry Steven, if I upset you."

Steven smiled nervously. "No prob Bob. You're important to me too."

For the first time since Ben had arrived, he saw the red woman smile.

"Garnet." Pearl approached her from behind. "Why didn't you tell us? We were worried about you."

"Yeah, I mean we know you've got you secrets but-"

"I didn't want to worry you, or cause a panic." She responded. "That was irresponsible of me. I suppose I rely too much on my ability to see the ends of conversations." She sighed. "I just wish I knew what was going on."

"Perhaps I can help." A new voice suddenly chimed in. Everyone's head shot to the direction of the voice, which turned out to be a man wearing a tan suit with a matching bowler had and a rather decretive red and yellow scarf. He walked with a cane, which was a bit odd, since he clearly didn't need it as he sauntered towards them. Most noticeable was he gauntleted right arm. "Greetings all."

"Professor Paradox." Ben and Garnet said simultaneously before turning to stare at each other in shock. "Wait, how do you know the Professor?"

"Um Garnet?" Pearl asked. "What's going on here?" She asked, staring at the strange new man, who chuckled at the new development.

"Professor," Garnet turned. "Please tell me you're here to explain all of this."

"Yeah, that'd be helpful." Ben added.

"Haha, oh no." Paradox laughed. "I'm here because of that." He said pointing his cane to the sky. The group looked up to see something quite bazaar. A giant glistening blue bird, was circling the sky above their campfire. "And that over there." He said pointing at the area behind them, where to their continued shock a black frog-like creature with red thorns growing all over its body croaked loudly before hopping directly over them.

Garnet quickly grabbed Steven as the group scattered just as the creature landed, lifting up sand as it smothered out their fire with its body. The four warriors (and Steven) drew their weapons, with the Gems summoning them from the jewels on their bodies, and Ben slapping the Omnitrix.

Steven was once again awestruck when, in a flash of green, Ben transformed. This time into a giant insect with 4 stalked eyes and two giant wings.

"Steven, wait here." Garnet said as she charged the massive amphibian.

"But I wanna…" He started before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the man Garnet had called Professor.

"Take her word for it Steven. This fight is important." The man said calmly.

"Who are you exactly?" Steven asked.

"I'm just an old friend of the family." The Professor said. "And this battle is crucial. Here is where you'll learn exactly what we're dealing with." His voice became stern.

"But I can help." Steven insisted.

"When the time comes," the Professor said. "You'll know when to jump in."

 **A/N: Emotions. Can you feel'm?**


	4. Broken Jewelry

Broken Jewelry

Ben didn't waste a second, launching himself into the sky with Stinkfly's powerful wings and heading straight for the blue bird that circled overhead. "Thanks a lot Omnitrix." He muttered. "A frog and a bird show up and you turn me into a giant appetizer."

Before he could reach his target the creature suddenly dived straight down, its massive body folding into a sleek arrow shape and heading straight for him!

"Oh man!" He cried out before pulling to the side, just as the creature whooshed by, displacing the air and sending him tumbling through the sky. He struggled to right himself just as strange, whip-like tendril lashed out just to his left. "Jeez!" He yelled dodging again, as the toad below pulled its tongue back. "Seriously?"

As the toad puffed its chest out, letting out another croak, it suddenly spat out a burst of hot air as a spinning purple ball slammed into its side, knocking it over and sending it tumbling through the sand. As the bird was pulling up back into the sky, Pearl leapt onto its back and impaled her spear right behind its neck.

"That's odd." She said, as she stared into what had to be the creature's gem. It was cracked, but was bright red, in significant contrast to the rest of its color scheme. It would not have been strange, if it were not for…

"Incoming!" A gargled voice yelled over the rushing wind. Pearl looked up to see Ben, in the form of a giant insect, flying directly at her! Before he could be hit he zipped to the side and reared back his…stinger! Before slamming and dragging it along the wing of the bird, causing it to tumble to the side and Pearl to fall off.

"Excuse you!" She yelled indignantly, righting herself almost instantly before landing on one foot, sending out a small ripple of sand. She summoned another spear from her forehead, which she began twirling in an intricate dance causing the sand around her to twirl into a spiral in the air.

Meanwhile, Amethyst was hopping around as a giant cricket, dodging the tongue lashings of the toad creature. "Come on frog-breath." She laughed, wagging her antenna. "Aren't you hungry?" She asked, dodging it yet again. As the tongue cracked like a whip across the beach, sending little bursts of sand into the air, it didn't notice the red woman, who leapt in front of Amethyst and grabbed it with gauntleted hands.

The beast croaked as it struggled to pull its appendage back, only to slowly get dragged forward itself. "Surprise Thorny-Toad!" Another voice cried out, as Amethyst descended as a giant cricket before morphing into giant hairy wrestler and elbow dropping on the creature's head, causing it to bight off its own tongue! Garnet through away the useless appendage before charging forward and attempted to punch the beast, only for it to throw back its head and toss away Amethyst before puffing out its chest just as Garnet's punch landed, causing her fist to get absorbed into the air sack before being thrown back onto the beach.

As Pearl's sand spiral grew, Stinkfly was zooming back and forth slicing at the bird creature with his stinger. "This isn't working." He gargled. "It's way too tough to go down from just this. I need to find a new way to make this work."

' _Genetic damage detected.'_

"What?" Stinkfly's bulbous eyes widened.

"Move aside!" Pearl cried from below. As Ben looked down he could see what looked like a small cyclone of sand moving straight for him! He barely managed to dodge as it rushed passed and slammed into the bird like a drill, sending it tumbling out of the sky.

"Hey, watch it!" Stinkfly shouted. "You could have de-winged me!" He said as he landed a few feet from her.

She gave him a dry look. "Oh like you had any problem sending me tumbling out of the sky." She said crossing her arms.

"Hey I told you I was coming. You _saw_ me." He responded.

"I warned you as well."

"Yeah, after you launched the attack." He grumbled. "I was already fighting the thing when you jumped in."

"Looked more like you were struggling to me." She said shaking her head. "Just how effective did you think a giant _smelly_ insect would be?" Just as she said this, a loud screech alerted them both to the blue bird, which was shaking the sand from its body as spreading its wings.

 _ **CREEEEEEE!**_

Stinkfly just smirked. "Let me show you." He said, taking of down the beach directly at the downed bird. _'Genetic Damage Detected.'_ "Yeah I heard you." As he got in closer, he began launching streams of thick green slime at the creature's wings. "That should hold yah." He said as the monster struggled to move its wings, which were sticking to its body. "At least long enough for me to do this." He said, launching even more streams of goo, these being a much thinner substance, as he circled the creature's body pelting him like rocks.

"And just what is that supposed to do?" Pearl asked, catching up with him as he landed, admiring his own handy work. Beneath the gross looking slime, the bird screeched as it tried to free itself. Just as she asked this, another flash of green light shone in the corner of her eye. Glancing over, she noticed Ben had become a humanoid creature made of stone and fire, with the Omnitrix on the chest of his molten body.

"Just this." He said pointing a single finger at the slime covered creature. "Bang." Ben launched a ball of flame the size of an apple like a bullet directly at the bird, which exploded into a massive inferno causing it to cry out in pain, and Pearl to shield her eyes. The monster rolled, and flapped around the beach before throwing itself into the ocean.

"For the record." Ben said, crossing his arms. " _This_ is Heatblast."

Much farther up the beach, Steven stared at the two with a concerned look on his face. "Something doesn't feel right." He said, as he watched the bird-creature leap into the tides.

"Oh don't worry." Professor Paradox said from behind him. Steven looked at the man as he appeared to be messing with some sort of blue holographic screen. "It's universally disturbing to watch living things being set on fire. You should have seen the unveiling of the original Human-Torch."

Steven raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing exactly?" He asked.

Paradox smiled at him. "Why, I'm helping of course."

Meanwhile, back with Garnet and Amethyst, the two warriors were now trying to pin down the Thorny-Toad as it leapt around the beach, dodging all of their attacks. "Hold still!" Garnet yelled, as she punched the ground, sending out a shockwave that would have thrown the beast in the air had it not jumped up to escape it. "Amethyst, let's go!" She called out, as Amethyst summoned her whip and lashed it out at Garnet, who caught it as it strung around her hand.

Amethyst then through herself at Garnet while winding herself into her whip. Just as she reached her, Garnet flung her directly at the Thorny-Toad as it landed, sending her spinning like a top across the beach. The Toad puffed out its chest, just as before, as Amethyst slammed into it with a powerful kick, knocking all the air out of its sack. As its defenses deflated, Amethyst was sent tumbling back, and a flying Gauntlet smashed into its now vulnerable chest, flipping it onto its back. Not wasting a second, Garnet jumped into the air with her fist raised, before landing a devastating punch on the Toad's underbelly, with a force that made the entire beach quake.

"Alright!" Amethyst shouted. "Our weird plan worked." She said running up as Garnet leapt off the beast's stomach.

" _My_ weird plan worked." Garnet said, as she dismissed her other Gauntlet. She began to walk away, but the stopped. "Wait…shouldn't it be turning back by now?"

"Hey yeah." Amethyst said, staring at the unconscious beast. "It's just lying there." She was about to start poking it when, as if on cue, it glowed bright red. "Oh man, it's gonna disappear!" Surprisingly, it did not, as it morphed into a glowing red ball that shot into the sky.

With Pearl and Heatblast, both of them stood in shock as a glowing blue ball rose from the ocean and flew into the air.

Steven gaped as the two sphere's met in the sky between the two pairs and shone with a bright light before-

 _ **RAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!**_

\- a powerful roar rippled through the sky as the light died down, revealing a large, burgundy colored, lizard creature with leathery bat-like wings and a serpentine body. The creature fell to the ground on all fours, sweeping its tail at Ben and Pearl at lightning speed, sending them both into the ocean. Then it locked eyes with him.

Steven was frozen in place as the piercing red eyes of the serpent penetrated his soul, even from so far away. The creature suddenly started to glow again, although unlike before a fiery aura shimmered around its body, charring the beach beneath it. It reared back its head, and launched a massive ball of blue fire across the beach and directly at him.

"Oh my." Paradox muttered.

Steven held out his arm and summoned his shield, much larger and wider than before, just before the blast hit, spreading the explosion around both him and Paradox without a struggle.

"Excellent reflexes Mr. Universe." Paradox said, as he dismissed his holographic screen. "You'll be a warrior in no time."

"Thank you." Steven smiled.

"But now I suppose we she get ourselves involved, before things escalate." Paradox said, as he began to walk towards the action.

"Now?" Steven asked, as he looked out to see Amethyst and Garnet fighting the serpent. "Are you sure?" The monster let out a roar as Pearl jumped out of the water and threw a spear through one of its wings.

"Now." The Professor said.

The dragon howled as the four aliens surrounded it. It swept its tail back and forth across the sand, kicked up a dust storm as it tried to push back its opponents. Garnet, jumped into the fray, gripping its tail, as Amethyst rolled into a ball, knocking its legs from beneath it, sending it tumbling to the ground.

Immediately, it tried to use its wings to launch itself into the air, but was pinned down by Heatblast, who threw himself onto one of its wings. Desperate, it began charging another fireball in its mouth, only for Pearl to blast it with a laser from her spear, detonating it on the inside and sending the beast reeling back. The four fighters jumped back into group formation as the serpent stumbled around, coughing up fumes.

"This isn't supposed to happen right?" Amethyst asked. "I mean, monster fusion."

"This doesn't happen often?" Heatblast asked. "I mean it's weird but…"

"No it doesn't." Garnet growled. "It's _not_ supposed to happen. In fact it should be impossible."

"What should we do?" Pearl asked in a shaky tone. "This is just…I can't even…"

"Excuse me?" The group turned to see Professor Paradox walking towards them with Steven close by. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Paradox, what's going on?" Garnet asked.

"Steven what are you doing here?" Pearl cried out.

"I was just following the Professor." Steven laughed nervously. "Plus I kinda just wanted to help." As he said the serpent roared, as it brought itself onto its hind legs. Just then, it began to shimmer into translucency.

"It's teleporting!" Garnet cried, before Paradox shot a blue sphere at its chest from his gauntlet, bringing the creature back into solid form.

"Oh no it's not." He smirked. "Hop to it Benjamin."

"Hop to what?" Heatblast asked. "What do you expect me to-"

' _Genetic Damage detected'_

"Oh right." He said, before bringing a hand up to the Omnitrix. "You guys might want to stand back."

"What are you going to do?" Amethyst asked. Instead of answering Heatblast fired a green beam of energy from his chest at the monster, engulfing it in a bright green light.

"Ow, ow owowowowow!" Ben cringed as the beam lifted the struggling creature several feet off the ground.

"What's happening? What is he doing?" Steven asked, turning to Professor Paradox.

Paradox frowned. "Hopefully, he's fixing her." His words seemed to strike a chord in the Crystal Gems as they all turned wide eyed at the Professor.

"A-are you serious?" Pearl stuttered. "He can do that?"

"Maybe." The Professor sighed.

As the light that held the monster in place began to shrink, the atrocious roar that rumbled the ground contorted into an agonized scream. A woman's scream. Heatblast's eyes widened. "What the? What's going on?"

"Keep at it Ben. We won't know for sure unless you finish."

"Finish what? Who is this?" As the monster shrank and touched the ground, the glowing green light took the shape of a woman, although none of them could make out the details. The Crystal Gems stood shocked at what was happening, and Steven began to sweat from the tension. The shape became more and more humanoid as the woman inside reached out her hand at them.

" _ **St-Ste-ven!"**_ Her gurgled voice called out, causing everyone present to turn to look at him.

"M-me?" He asked taking a few steps back in surprise. "How do you know me?"

" _ **Stev-AAAAH!"**_

"I can't hold it!" Heatblast called out as he was overtaken by the green energy. Ben was thrown back by the energy surge as his transformation timed out and a bright flash of light blinded everyone around.

" _ **GAAAAAAAWW! RAAAAAAAA!"**_

The serpent rose from the sand, thrashing its body back and forth like a crocodile.

"Everyone get back!" Paradox yelled. Before anyone could react a tentacle like tail shot out from the dust cloud directly at-

"Steven!" Pearl shouted as she shoved him out of the way, causing the tail to wrap around her like a python. The beast instantly flapped its wings, sending a powerful gust against the warriors, knocking them all back as it took off into the sky.

"Pearl!" The Gems shouted. Garnet didn't waste a beat as she flipped back to her feet and launched herself hundreds of feet into the air with a powerful jump, and grabbing Pearl's leg just before the dragon flew off at hundreds of miles per hour into the distance. The three of them were gone from sight in seconds.

"That ain't good." Amethyst muttered wide eyed.

"Professor?" Steven panted. "Ben? What should we do?" He looked up to see Professor Paradox glaring into the distance as Ben struggle with his Omnitrix.

"Come on! Work!" He grunted, trying to activate his watch, only to get a buzzing sound.

"Don't bother Ben." Paradox said. "Your power is drained. You need to give it time to recharge." As he said this Ben's own frown turned tired.

"This sucks." He muttered. "If I hadn't been using it all day, maybe I would have had enough juice to fix her."

"No, that wasn't the problem." Paradox said with a sigh. "Something else is wrong with her. Something with power that rivals the energy of the Omnitrix."

"You two wanna explain what's going on?" Amethyst asked, stepping between them. "I mean, in case you haven't noticed, we have an emergency on our hands." She said gesturing to the sky. "Not that I'm worried or anything, but I don't wanna get yelled at for taking too long to save them."

"Right." Paradox said. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on, I'll admit." He tapped his cane. "But there is a familiar power at work here, one that I could sense within those corrupted Gems." His words made Steven and Amethyst wince, and they both looked at Ben subconsciously.

"Corrupted Gems?" Ben asked, before his eyes widened. "Those monsters were Gems?" He turned to Steven who looked at the ground.

"Yeah." Amethyst said rubbing her head. "The monsters we fight are broken Gems. Usually when we beat them they turn back into Gem form and we store them away."

"Away for what?" Ben asked, surprised and confused.

"I…don't know." Amethyst sighed. "I guess, just so they don't have to be monsters. I mean…we can't fix them."

"And someone's taking advantage of that." Paradox stated. "Someone is controlling them, and is somehow able to prevent Ben from repairing their genetic damage." He said adjusting his hat. "That same person is also able to teleport them on a whim. Whoever this person is, they're formidable."

"Any ideas who it could be?" Ben asked. "Maltruant? Eon? Vilgax?"

"I don't know, that's the scary part," Paradox shook his head. "But right now, we have different priorities. You should regroup with Pearl and Garnet, I'll continue my investigation and keep you updated. Now that I've had a chance to examine the energy on the teleportation it should be easier."

Ben nodded. "Sure thing. You guys ready?" He asked turning to Amethyst and Steven.

"Yeah." Amethyst said. "Let's get going."

"R-right." Steven said, still looking at the ground. With that, Paradox vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving the three to their task.

There was an awkward pause between the three as Ben looked to both Steven and Amethyst. "Um, you guys wanna take the lead on this one?" Ben asked. "I mean do you have like a ship or a car or something, or are we hoofing it?"

Both Amethyst and Steven gave him nervous looks. "Ben," Amethyst asked. "Can you…really fix those broken Gems."

"You mean repair genetic damage?" Ben asked before smirking. "Sure I could. I mean I've done it before. We just gotta figure out what's blocking it."

"Man, talk about a game changer." She muttered.

"How exactly do Gems break?" Ben asked. "Is it like a sickness or something?"

"I…uh…I think maybe you should talk to Garnet about that." She smiled nervously. "I'm not really the smartest Gem around."

Ben chuckled. "I know the feeling. Pretty much all of my friends know more stuff than me." He then put his hands to his sides. "Well, no point in standing around you two, we gotta go catch up with Garnet and Pearl before they finish the fight without us."

"How will we catch up though?" Steven asked. "We don't even know where they went."

 _ **GAOH!**_

A loud roar suddenly rang out behind Ben causing him to jump and fall into the sand. "What the heck!?" Standing behind him was- "Why is there a pink lion on the beach!?"

"Oh," Amethyst laughed. "That's Steven's pet lion. His name's Lion."

 _ **GAOH!**_

"Um, hi." Ben muttered, still shook up. "Where'd you get a lion?"

"My mom, I think." Steven said, petting Lion on the muzzle. "I guess we could ride him. He might know where Garnet and Pearl are." Steven leapt onto Lion's back, gripping his main.

"How exactly did he know where to find us?" Ben cautiously followed Steven as he also climbed on, with Amethyst Jumping on behind him.

"He just sorta comes and goes." Steven replied. "Lion, find Garnet and Pearl!" Steven shouted zealously.

Lion just stood there.

"Um…please?"

Lion just stood there.

Ben scratched his head. "Did you _train_ him to find things?" He asked.

"Lion just sorta does whatever he wants." Amethyst said. "We'll be lucky if he moves at all."

Lion turned around slowly until he was facing the ocean.

"Um."

Suddenly he took of at incredible speed, across the surface of the water.

"Woah!"

"Lion wait!"

"Shoulda seen this coming." Amethyst sighed.

Garnet held fast as the force of the wind threatened to send her plummeting to the ground. It wasn't the toughest thing she'd ever had to do, but it wasn't like she'd be able to find Pearl again if she let go now.

"Garnet!" Pearl yelled. "I can't move my arms! I've got no leverage!"

"Pearl, you need to change into something smaller!" She shouted back. "Anything at this point would be helpful." If Pearl could shapeshift into a smaller form, or even convert her body to energy for just a few seconds she could get free, and Garnet had no doubt they'd survive the fall. "Wait, I think we're descending!" No sooner had she noticed this-

"Gwah!" Pearl was suddenly flung to the wayside with a flick of the creature's tail, sending them both tumbling through the air and down into the forest below. The creature, which had attacked them let out one more roar as it flapped away into the clouds. Not one to panic, Garnet instantly righted herself and braced her legs for a hard impact against the ground and Pearl followed suit.

"Pearl, aim for that clearing! We'll get a smoother landing!"

"Right!" And like two meteors they both splashed against the soft earth with a powerful _**THUD,**_ sending several pounds of soil and rock spewing into the air around their craters. Within seconds the forest was quiet once more as the echo of their crash faded away.

"Oh my." Pearl sighed. "That was…different." She mused, pulling her legs from the ground. "It's just one thing after another today."

"Shh."

She looked up to see that Garnet was standing perfectly still where she'd landed, holding up her hand to silence her.

"Did, you hear anything?" Garnet asked. Now that the forest was quiet she couldn't hear anything. Now that the creature…

"I don't hear anything." Pearl replied with her eyes going wide. Their crash landing should have upset quite a few birds and creatures but there had been nothing. Not a single sound since they landed.

"I think that creature wanted us to land here." Garnet said, looking up at the sky. "I think that- PEARL!" She suddenly leapt from the crater and summoned her gauntlets as Pearl whipped her head around to see the white snake from that morning, slithering slowly from the foliage with its spear-like head shining in the moonlight. Pearl quickly summoned her own weapon when they both turned to see a huge hyena like creature with razor-like hair step out on their other side.

The two warriors jumped back to back as their two foes inched closer and closer.

"Any ideas?" Garnet asked, pounding her fists together.

"You could surrender." Said a new voice. Garnet and Pearl's eyes quickly locked on to the source of the voice, as a figure walked in between the beast. It was tall and humanoid, wearing a set of black armor with gold highlights. The figure also wore a skull-like visor over a black helmet. Judging by the lithe body type, it was clearly a woman. "In fact, it's really the only safe option you have, Crystal Gems."

Pearl's face looked aghast with confusion. "I-who are _you?_ "

"More importantly," Garnet added. "Are you the one behind these beast attacks?"

"Obviously." The armored woman muttered. "It's amazing how similarly you respond compared to our last meeting."

Pearl scoffed. "I doubt we'd ever speak to someone like you. How are you even doing this?"

"That's my business." The woman said, pressing some buttons on her arm. "Now about your surrender." No sooner had she said this did a familiar humming sound resonate behind them. Followed by a very familiar roar. They swung their heads back just in time to see the dragon from earlier loom over them with its wings spread wide! "You will give yourselves up immediately, and submit yourselves to my full authority."

Garnet grit her teeth. "Never." She hissed. "You're crazy if you think we'd ever give up to someone who hides behind our fallen sisters."

The woman just laughed. "How very noble. But what about poor Steven?"

They froze.

"As we speak he's being hunted for the sole purpose of drawing you out, but here you are making it easy."

"I swear if you touch him!" Pearl seethed. "I don't care what you want, don't you dare hurt Steven!"

"What room do you have to argue?" The woman, asked rubbing her hand over the white snake. "You're the one with the weakest will. You'll talk a big game, but you'll be the first to break. You're just a Pearl."

Pearl was put off by the comment, even taking a step back, only for Garnet to step forward. "I'll ask you once more. What do you _want?"_

"And you Garnet. You pretend to be strong, but you're just a machine of a creature. All the cobbled together pieces of two children who can barely think for themselves."

Garnet tensed. "H-how do you-"

"Know what you are? The same way I know that Amethyst is little more than a talking dog who can barely grasp what it means to be alive."

For some reason those words made Garnet and Pearl's spirits feel cold. If Amethyst had heard that she'd have fallen apart. That one sentence.

"I know you all quite well actually. We've met before." The woman held up her hand, and a flash of yellow light shone over her as an object materialized in her hand. A massive pink sword. Rose's sword. "Or should I say we will meet." She impale the blade in the dirt. "It's amazing what you can learn about someone when they've got nothing to lose."

"That's…you can't…WHO ARE YOU!?" Pearl almost jumped back, only to bump into the dragon that had crept up behind them.

"We will have met?" Garnet asked. "You're from-"

"The future. Yes." The woman pressed a few more buttons on her Gauntlet, causing the creatures around them to glow bright red and roar with what could only be assumed was agony. "It seems I forgot something important during my last go around so I've been trying to start over. And I've got to say-" The roars turned to screams. Familiar screams, as the beasts became feminine in shape. Pearl and Garnet's jaws dropped at the sight, and their limbs began to shake.

The snake became a teal skinned woman with peach color hair, a tattered unitard, and a round craked red gem on her forehead.

The hyena became a short, stocky, purple woman, in lose black denim with matted lilac hair.

Pearl eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of her head. "Oh my goodness." She barely whispered. "That's…us."

Behind her, Garnet stood shaking as a twisted blue and red version of herself shambled across the ground. On her forehead was a jagged fusion of Ruby and Sapphire's gems. She could barely hear the woman speak.

"I'm curious to see if you'll be as easy to _break_ this time." She laughed, swinging Rose's sword over her shoulder. "I'm actually looking forward to it."

 **A/N: I made a cover for the story, which some of you can see. Took me all week to finally scan and paint it. Now I feel all official.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Beach Problems**

Early the next morning Connie stood patiently at her regular bus stop. She smiled as she giddily swung her legs back and forth under the bench, thinking of what she and Steven were going to do that day. She also wondered if Ben was still around, in which case she could show him how her sword training was going.

"I wonder if he'd even be interested." She wondered aloud. Ben seemed to have a pretty exciting life. Why would he be interested in watching her practice? Would he even still be with Steven? Did he go back home? Her lips pursed a bit with that thought. "How would he even get home?" She wondered. She hadn't bothered to ask yesterday, but Ben didn't seem too worried about it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she spotted someone approaching from the corner of her eye. Looking up with raised eyebrows, she saw a boy she'd never seen before. He wore a black t-shirt with red highlights, and for some strange reason his hair was white. He also had striking bright red eyes.

" _Maybe he's albino."_ She thought as she turned away, not wanting to seem rude by staring. The boy approached her with a blank face as he stood right in front of her. Deciding not to be awkward, as she often was, she looked up and muttered a, "Good morning," to the boy.

"Yes, hello." He said dully in response. He didn't even bother to look at her, instead staring off in the direction he'd come from. "You're Connie Maheswaran correct?" He asked as if he'd been expecting her.

She sat up straight at the question. "Um, yes. Yes I am. And you are?" She responded. _"He must be new in the neighborhood. Maybe my mom met his mom."_ She thought. That was how her mother tended to act around neighbors with kids. She'd often entice Connie to meet them, if they met her approval anyway.

The boy grunted. " _My_ name is Albedo." He said, as if she should already know. "I'd been told about you, and I just wanted to make sure I wasn't talking to the wrong girl."

Connie smiled nervously. She'd assumed she'd been right about her earlier guess. "I see. I can understand that. So are you new around here?"

"Obviously." The spat. "In a backwater cesspool like this I'm sure you'd have seen me before if I wasn't." He folded his hands together as if trying to meditate. "Honestly, the questions children ask."

If Connie were a bit bolder, she may have snapped at the boy's bratty response. But she'd been raised better. Or at least more professionally. So she opted to change the subject. "I apologize, I was just making small talk. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't _upset_ me, you _annoyed_ me." He said through gritted teeth. "But I'm not here to answer your stupid questions, I'm here so you can answer mine."

Connie pouted a bit at the boy's attitude. "Alright, ask away then."

"Are you going to meet a Mr. Steven Universe?"

She blinked in surprise. "Er, yes I am." She tilted her head at his question. "Do you know Steven? Did my mother send you?" Connie wouldn't put it past her mother to send someone to ask her personal questions about her personal life.

"What did I just say about questions?" Albedo asked. "Does he know you're coming?"

"Of course." Connie asked, deepening her own tone. She wouldn't let some kid get under her skin, even if he was incredibly creepy. "Why are you asking?"

"That's not import-"

"Yes it _is_." Connie stood to her feet, standing right up to the boy and coming in at just under a foot taller than him. "Explain yourself, why are you asking me questions out of nowhere? Who are you? And how do you know Steven?" She crossed her arms and looked down at him. "I'm not answering another question until you answer mine."

To her discomfort, Albedo simply chuckled. And not like a boy would chuckle either. More like a humorless old man. "I just need to make sure my message is delivered properly." As he said this, the air above them rippled like water and Connie gasped as a massive black cube decorated in yellow circuit patterns descended from the sky, casting a large shadow. The construct took up at least half of the street, and was easily the size of a cabin.

"I believe this is your ride." He laughed, stepping out of her path.

"Excuse me!?" She shouted, turning her attention to him and getting ready demand an explanation, and trying to ignore the fear building up in her. But she froze when she saw him raise his right hand, and showed her the red gauntlet, and the familiar symbol on the back of it.

"Recognize this?" He asked before he was overtaken by a red flash. Connie shielded her eyes and stepped back, but stopped as she heard a menacing growl. When she opened them, she recoiled as what appeared to be a huge _werewolf_ glared down at her. The red eyed beast gave he what she might have assumed was a grin. "Get on."

Connie bit her lip and glanced around, looking for a way to run.

"Hehe, don't even think about it. You couldn't out run me on my worst day. Get on the ship, or I carry you in my teeth." He growled, pointing his knifelike fingers at the cube, as it opened up a rectangular door in its side. Feeling trapped, Connie slowly made her way to the cube.

"Y-you'll never get away with this." She managed to squeak out.

"Of course." The wolf-man said making his way behind her.

"I mean it. Steven will come for me."

"I certainly hope so."

She felt her breath get caught in her throat. "What do you mean?"

"Get in the ship, and sit down." She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, and the thought of those teeth made her walk just a bit faster.

 _Unknown Beach…_

Ben awoke to the sound of waves and the incredibly uncomfortable sensation of sand in his pants. Forcing his eyes open, he looked up facing a blue, cloudless sky. "Where the heck am I?" He wondered.

"On a beach." Said a vaguely familiar voice. "You fell asleep on Lion."

Ben, against his inherent laziness, forced himself to sit up after his uncomfortable sleep, and turn to look at the source of the voice. To his faint surprise, he saw a short purple woman eating coconuts. Entire coconuts.

"Hey Amethyst." He grunted. "You say I fell asleep on a lion?"

"Yep." She replied nonchalantly. "You and Steven over there." She pointed to a spot behind Ben, where Steven was sleeping face down in the sand with Lion curled up around him. "Lion stopped here, wherever this place is, so I let you guys catch your Z's."

Ben's eyes widened. "But we're supposed to be going after Garnet and Pearl! Why didn't you wake us up?"

She shrugged. "Why'd you fall asleep?" She asked as if it somehow came back to him. "Besides, Garnet and Pearl are tough. They don't _need_ our help. I was going with your plan."

Ben's eye twitched. "Getting on the lion was _your_ plan! I thought we were going somewhere important."

"Oh." She said, surprised by this. "My bad. Guess that was for nothing." She laughed before stuffing down another coconut.

Before Ben could even find a place to start with this girl, Steven suddenly shot up. "Pearl we're coming to save you!" He shouted, with his face covered in sand. He rubbed his face before looking around. "Um where are we? Did we save them yet?"

Ben pinched his nose. "No we didn't. But as soon as we figure out where we are we're going to."

Steven yawned as he stood up to stretch. "Well, Lion only takes me places that are important. So this place must be somewhere."

"Everywhere is somewhere Steven." Ben sighed.

"I mean somewhere important." He put a finger to his chin. "We should look around."

Ben, probably because of his grogginess, couldn't think of anything better. "Fine. Amethyst, that okay with you?"

"I'm game for anything." She dusted off her hands. "Let's go."

"And the lion?" Ben asked, looking at the sleeping cat. He wasn't too fond of the idea of waking it up.

"He'll catch up." Steven said as he began doing stretches. After a few jumping jacks, he gave himself a few slaps to the face. "Come on team, let's march!" He cheered.

Ben, despite himself, managed a tired grin. "That kid has too much energy."

"Psh, you sound like an old man." Amethyst said walking up beside him.

"My friends probably wish I'd act a bit older." He chuckled. "This kinda throws that into perspective."

"What, you gonna start acting more "mature" now?" She teased.

"Heck no. I'm gonna act more like that guy." He said, gesturing to Steven. "He's got his act together, and he's barely a teenager."

Amethyst gave a quick grunt in response, barely even a laugh before she looked away. "So…"

Ben was not a believer in awkward silences, and grinned a bit to ease the tension. "What's up?"

Amethyst placed a hand on the back of her head. "You turn into aliens and stuff right? Like all the time?"

"Yep."

"Out in the open? Where everyone can see you?" She pressed.

"Mhm." He nodded. "Pretty much every day."

"So…what's your world like?"

Ben blinked. "That's a pretty broad question." He smirked, putting a hand to his chin. "I guess recently, my home town has become the first city on Earth that aliens live in freely."

"Whoa seriously?" She looked up at him. "How many?"

"Dunno. A few thousand. Tens of thousands if you count the Aliens of Under-Town, which is a whole 'nother city underneath Bellwood. Maybe more, honestly I'm pretty bad with statistics."

"Thousands huh? That's pretty amazing." She said grinning, trying to picture what Bellwood was like. "And the Aliens and Humans just get along?"

"Well not always. A lot of humans are afraid of them, or just flat out hate them." He responded with a frown. "And some aliens are no different. They see humans as beneath them, because humans are so weak compared to most aliens."

Amethyst looked away. "I guess you wouldn't like that very much."

"Of course not." Ben crossed his arms. "No species is beneath another. I once fought an entire race of aliens who tried to wipe out humanity, and turn Earth into their new breeding ground."

Amethyst almost tripped over herself. "T-that's sounds, pretty messed up." She said rubbing her arm nervously. "What'd you do?"

"Well that's where the story gets interesting." He said smiling. "I could only do so much to fight them, and in the end I discovered that in spite of their superiority complex, they weren't much different from anyone else." He glanced down at his Omnitrix, his mind going back to his meeting with Reinrasic, one of the Highbreed he was referring too. "They were afraid dying. They'd become so obsessed with being perfect that they became sterile."

She listened intently as Ben seemed to become more serious.

"So they decided that since they were going to die out. Everyone else had to die out with them. They were going to wipe out every species in the galaxy."

"Wow." She gasped. "How'd you beat them?"

"By letting them live." He grinned, holding up the Omnitrix. "I used the Omnitrix re-write their DNA and cure their sterility. They weren't pure blooded anymore, but they all lived."

"What!?" She nearly shouted. "You helped them? Couldn't you have just, I don't know, killed their leader or something?"

"Not really my style." He waved away the thought. "I mean I love a good brawl, but life and death situations aren't always that simple. The Highbreed were powerful enough to defeat one of the most advanced species in the Universe. I couldn't have won by fighting even if I beat all of them. The damage was done. By curing them, I was able to convince them to undo the damage themselves."

Amethyst just stared at him, blank faced before turning her head down to the beach they were walking along. "Wow. You're a lot smarter than I thought you were."

"Yeah, I try." He smiled triumphantly. "For all the good it does me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ben looked ahead at Steven, who was marching at a leisurely pace some twenty feet ahead. "Can you keep a secret?"

"No, but I'll try." She shrugged.

"Good enough." He sighed. "There are days when…" he paused and sighed again. "There are days when I really _hate_ not being in the spotlight."

"Um…okay. Then just show off a little more." Amethyst shrugged. "Nothing wrong with a little extra attention right?"

Ben frowned. "Apparently there is."

"How? I show off all the time."

"Why?"

"Because I'm awesome. What other reason do I need?" She laughed.

Ben smiled. "Seriously. That's exactly what I would say. But everyone I know is like. 'Being a hero's not about the fame Ben' or 'The Omnitrix isn't a toy Ben' or 'Ben you have to be more careful with what alien you choose' or my favorite 'Ben, you ruined my car!' That one's always fun." He huffed.

"Sounds like you mess up a lot." She giggled.

"Yeah but who doesn't?" He grimaced. "I'd love to be the guy who can always make the right choices, who always has a plan, and is always "mature" and "intelligent" but I'm _not._ " Ben balled up his fists. "I'm just a guy. I spend half my life going out of my way to save people and defend the whole universe in _secret_ , and then when my secret gets out and everyone learns who I am, I'm supposed to be humble and mature when the people whose lives I've saved countless times are complaining to me about how I wrecked their car, or broke their house, or ruined their birthday party. Like, hello! Happy Birthday, here's three more weeks of life until the next world ending disaster that I'll save you from. Sorry about your car, but is your soul still attached to your body? Oh your house is gone? My bad but I have trouble controlling my landings when extra-dimensional demons fling me through the atmosphere. Too bad no one died or I MIGHT ACTUALLY FEEL BAD!" Ben shouted tearing at his hair.

"…You good?" Amethyst asked.

Ben took a few deep breaths. "Yeah, I'm good." He put a hand to his head. "I've been holding that in for a while."

Amethyst laughed. "Man, I had no idea you were such a drama queen. Your Earth must be hardcore."

Ben gave a tired chuckle. "It's something."

"Why even bother though?" She asked. "I mean Earth is my home and everything, and I wanna protect it, but I know what that's like." She put her hands on her hips. "I'm always getting scolded for not being serious enough, or for making mistakes. I mean excuse me if I don't know everything, but I'm not so dumb I can't _learn_."

"Exactly."

"Hey, so can _you_ keep a secret?" She asked him, in a bit of a hushed tone.

"Probably."

Amethyst rubbed her arm. "Okay so…" She bit her lip. "Sometimes I feel like nobody takes me seriously." She looked up to see Ben giving her a confused look, so she continued. "Okay so, you know how smart people always talk like they know what's best for you?"

"Yeah."

"And you get really mad because the act like they know how you feel, when you know they don't cause they keep saying the wrong thing?"

"…yeah." Ben muttered, his shoulders slumping a bit.

"I…I know how messed up I am sometimes. I know I act weird and gross and they don't like that, but I really want to make them proud you know?"

Ben nodded. "I know exactly what that's like."

"Really?" She asked, with a slight frown. She wasn't sure if Ben was really as messed up as her. Someone who, for all intents and purposes, was human, couldn't have very much in common with her on the level she was referring to.

"Yeah." He said with his own frown, though not at her. "I've always been kind of a brat. I'm not all that smart. Pretty average at best. And I don't have many friends. Heck most of my friends are people who I only know thanks to the Omnitrix. I've never made any real ones outside of being a superhero." His hands drifted into his pockets. "My cousin was always the successful one. She was an A student, she was a champion level fighter, and basically my family's favorite. Everyone would always compare me to her, even if they didn't realize it. And whenever I got into an argument with her, she always outsmarted me, or always beat me if we fought."

Amethyst bit her lip.

"The one person I always wanted to be like was my Grampa. He always made me feel like I was important, like I could be proud of myself. And when I got the Omnitrix, he was the one who guided me in being a hero. But it seemed like the more serious things got, the more frustrated he got with me. I couldn't keep up with who he wanted me to be. When I won, he'd always be there to pat me on the back and say "good job," but when I messed up, _everyone_ had something to say."

"Hm, I guess you do know what it's like." Amethyst forced out a chuckle. "Guess I'm not the only screw up in the Universe."

Ben rubbed his neck and laughed as well. "Guess not. We might be tied for first place."

"More like _worst_ place amiright?" She grinned, bumping him with her elbow.

"Boo!" He gave a thumbs down. "Now you're in first."

"Oh shut up!" She laughed, shoving him. "What do you know?"

"Hey I know puns, and that was desperate pun." He raised his hands in defense. "But who knows? I've made some pretty bad one liners, I'll have you beat before you know it."

"Maybe you're right." She sighed. "Even if that was a little corny." She teased.

 _Unknown Ship…_

Pearl really wished she could move.

She and Garnet had been forced to surrender when this mystery woman threatened to hurt Steven, and given the circumstances there was not much either of them could do but go along with what she said. She was floating in a thin clear tube, her body was frozen in a permanent standing position, with her arms at her side and her head facing forward. She could manage a small shift of twitch, but never enough to gain any significant momentum to break her prison.

Garnet was stuck in a similar spot. Floating just off to the side of Pearl, she frowned with worry as she tried over and over again to summon her gauntlets. But it was no use. Having looked around, this strange woman apparently had some obsession with cyber-punk, as their prison seemed to be made of black metal, chrome, and yellow circuits. The room that contained their tubes was circular in shape, with her and Pearl's tubes lined up with another in triangle formation. No doubt to whom the last tube belonged.

"Are you still wasting your energy?" Said a haughty voice that Garnet had come to loath. "Those tubes are designed to hold the energy of your forms in place, if you managed to summon those gauntlets you couldn't even use them." Walking from behind her, the woman in the yellow armor barely looked in her direction as sauntered by with her hands on her hips. "This isn't even the toughest hour of your day and you're already exhausting yourself."

"Why are you doing this?" Pearl asked, barely able to hide her discomfort of the woman's presence. "What could we possibly have that you want?"

"You're the Crystal Gems, that's all the reason I need." The Woman giggled. "I don't want anything but you."

"That doesn't answer the question." Garnet grumbled. "What's your goal here? You just want to torture us? You want to make us your pets? Why? Explain yourself."

"Maybe later." The woman sighed, clearly unamused by Garnet's show of boldness. "I think maybe I should wait on the other one, I don't like repeating myself. You know that."

Pearl squinted at her. "How would we know that? We don't even know you. We don't even know your name!"

"Sure you do." The woman laughed, as she gestured over the area outside of the triangle. Instantly a the area began to shift and morph as the floor rose out of the ground in a conglomerate of cubes, as if they were looking at a video screen. The area just a few feet from them now contained a small work station that seemed fused to the floor, all with the same patterns. Holographic screens shimmered over the computers as the woman continued her stroll towards the small podium in the center.

The calmness of the woman was really pressing on Garnet's last nerve. "Will you stop being coy and just give us a straight answer?"

"Like I said, maybe later." She responded as she waved her hand out at the screens, causing them to form a circle around her. "First let's see if we can't find your purple pet."

"Stop calling her that! Her name is Amethyst!" Pearl yelled.

"Like I care. Once she and the boy are found it won't even matter."

Pearl's eyes widened. "The boy?"

"You said you didn't need Steven!" Garnet yelled.

"I lied. Obviously." She said wile flicking through various screens. "I need all four of you. Well you and a few extras."

"You sick little…" Pearl's face contorted with Rage. "UNG! I'm going to slice you to pieces when I get out of here!"

"I'd imagine so. You've always been a bit of a sociopath." The woman taunted. "Maybe Steven can watch and get a glimpse of the _real_ you."

"Stop talking about him! You'll never get him because Amethyst won't let you."

To her irritation, the woman actually laughed aloud. "Is that a joke? You realize who you're talking about right? Your pet idiot is practically bringing him here. Take a look." She said waving over a screen that appeared in front of Pearl's face.

Her frown dropped into a horrified expression as she saw video of Steven, Amethyst and Ben walking along a beach she was not familiar with.

"They're only a few miles away right now. All I have to do is get their attention and draw them here. You know how animals are always chasing shiny things."

"No." Pearl's voice got caught in her throat. " _How did this happen?"_ She thought. _"I have to get out of here. I have to-"_

Pearls thoughts were cut short as three spheres morphed out of the ceiling, black in color and coated in yellow circuitry. They each had a yellow circle somewhere on their bodies that made them resemble giant eye balls.

" **The girl has been apprehended."** One of them said, with a deep, metallic voice. **"Albedo is in rout with her as we speak."**

"Great!" the woman seemed almost cheerful. "At this pace we'll be wrapped up before the Time Walker even knows where we are." The holographic screens faded out as the three orbs gathered around her. "One of you organize a Techadon squad and meet our guests who've been waiting outside. The other two need to head to the lower levels and prepare the machine." She waved them off. "Don't doddle, hurry up now!" She jeered. Two of the three orbs melded into the floor as the other returned through the ceiling. She clasped her hands together. "Don't you just love when a plan goes smoothly?"

Garnet and Pearl both silently agreed that this woman would suffer when they escaped.

 _On the Beach…_

Steven paused as a strange humming sound resonated through the forest to his right. He'd been marching to the tune of one of the songs he'd written himself, waiting for Ben and Amethyst to catch up when he felt the air around him start to pick up.

"Uh guys?" He called out, looking around. Apparently they did not hear him. Neither responded as Steven nervously stepped backwards as he glanced back and forth. The humming was getting louder. "Guys I think something is happening."

Back with Ben and Amethyst, the two of them had only just looked up to see that Steven had stopped. "You hear something?" Ben asked.

"Hm." Amethyst paused. "Now that you mention it, yeah…" Her voice drifted off as the vibrations increased. "Up there!" She shouted, suddenly pointing to the sky. Ben and Steven looked up to see six figures descending towards them from the sky. From what amethyst could tell, they looked like humanoid machines.

"Techadons!" Ben yelled. "Steven get back!" He quickly activated the Omnitrix and slapped his hand down on his wrist. A green light engulfed him, and expanded to reveal a large bipedal tiger-like creature.

"Right, I got it." Steven said as he ran past, quietly marveling at the alien he'd never seen.

"Let's make this quick." Amethyst said summoning her whip with a smirk. "Aw, who am I kidding? Let's make this last, I need a pick-me-up."

"Let me tell you somethin' Techadon robots of suspicious origin who don't belong in this universe!" Ben roared. "Rath is tired of fighting you faceless mooks! Gimme someone who'll cry when I pound their face in!" He smashed his fists together. "Where's your stupid boss!?"

The techodons responded by firing a barrage of lasers directly at Rath, which he made no effort to dodge. An explosion of light and sand shook the beach, causing Amethyst and Steven to shield their eyes. The drones landed some twenty meters away with their guns still pointed at the smoking crater.

"Ben!" Steven called out. He was about to run to his aid when a huge shadow leapt from the smoke and onto the clear beach.

"That better not be the best you can do!" Rath charged at the drones on all fours.

"Yeah! Guns blazin'!" Amethyst shouted throwing her whip to the side, and transforming herself into purple clone of Rath. "Amethyst Smash!" She cried charging in after him.

One of the drones rocketed himself towards Rath and pulled back his fist for a powerful punch to the face, only for Rath to catch the fist in his mouth and bite down, crushing it as he drove his right wrist-claw through the torso of the machine. The techadon did not let up, the force of the rockets pushing Ben in the opposite direction as he drove another rocket powered fist into Rath's unguarded right side. The blow loosened his jaw enough for the drone to send him tumbling backward with a quick kick to the abdomen.

Just then a shadow loomed over him, and the drone shot back just in time to dodge Amethyst as she smashed both her fists into the ground. It pointed its working hand at her, and fired a bolt of green energy.

Amethyst grinned as she raised her arms to block the shot, only to cry out in pain as the bolt burned a hole through both arms and hit her just beneath her gem. Her eyes widened at the android.

"That's it!" Rath screamed. "No more mister nice kitty!" He shot past her and summersaulted over the drone and grabbed it from behind. "Ursus Suplex!" He shouted, flipping the drone and planting its face into the sand. Rath quickly sat up and roundhouse kicked it in the rear, sending him rolling down the beach.

Back at the line of Techadons, another one of the drones stepped forward while the others spread out to cover the shortened line. He rocked past his fallen comrade and expanded his gauntleted fists until they crackled with green energy. As Rath charged him, drone-2 pointed its feet to the ground and set off a pair of booster in its feet, blowing up a huge cloud of debris right into Rath's open mouth and eyes.

"BLECH! UGH! Gross! That's a sick tactic arbitrary techadon number 2!" Rath yelled as he tried to punch sand in the air. "And Let me tell you somethin' dust cloud! Rath can't fight with you- _PUH_!" Rath spat as he felt a powerful blow to his jaw. He didn't even have time to recover before he was hit again in the neck, and only barely raised his arm to block a blow to the face that he still felt. He shot forward with a powerful right hook only to hit nothing but air. He quickly looked back and forth, but could see nothing before having his legs kicked form under him and being hammer fisted into the dirt. Ben was about to let out an angry sonic roar, when a high-pitched whistling sound shot into his ears and sent a wave of pain coursing through his body, causing him to scream in agony. It was all Rath could do to get the head splittin ringing to stop, before taking another blow to the head. And another. And another.

 **A/N:** **Write a character, not an archetype.**


End file.
